Warp Effect
by qwefg
Summary: What happens when a Chaos Psyker with a bit of sanity, an Imperial Guardsman, and a Wayward Tau get stuck in the Mass Effect Universe? How will they survive and be able to find allies in this strange new world before one of the Tau worlds under attack by a Tyranid hive fleet also falls into this universe?
1. Chapter 1

Warp Effect – a mass effect and 40k mash up

Author note – _I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop. _

_There will be deviations in-between mass effect and this story since this starts to take place in-between Mass Effect 1 and 2. Also I will through some creative changes mostly because I hated the "star child" bit so the reapers will be more… reaperish in a sense so if you have may thoughts about it could help.I should also note that this story will take primarly in Mass effect universe though there will be some 40k references._

_So send any thoughts comments, or helpful criticisms. _

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Dark beginnings**

**40k Universe**

Tau planet Aloh Au

Yadrell looked upon the alien planet in disgust. The Tau kept saying they were "For the Greater Good" yet all that amount to was whatever was best for them and yet people saw them as the good guys. Still it's not like the imperium was any better either and technically he was worse than both of them as one of the chaos marines spotted him.

"Get back to work!" The chaos marine shouted

Yadrell sighed to himself as he put back on the black imperial guard uniform and held up his stolen las riffle as he walked towards the ritual site. He ignored that the chaos marine spat at the ground in disgust at his presence. Not everyone in chaos enjoyed having psychers. Still despite the problems he had it was better than being found by the inquisition and tortured because he was born differently.

The chaos camp was one of the tau cities they had taken over as they had managed to kill everyone before they could shout for help. The cultist ran wild through the streets still looting what they could find from the buildings and enjoying the pleasures of the slaves they had taken. Marks of chaos had been inscribed onto the walls as humans possessed by daemons walked through the streets. Only the strong or the lucky survived now unless you were a slave as it seemed like a small section of hell had spilled out onto the world.

"Where are you going Yaddy?" said a feminine voice behind Yadrell.

He sighed as he turned around to meet the daemon as her body was one of the humans who had converted over to tau as former traces of the old life could still be seen despite the physical changes made by the daemon. The single braid of hair now looked like tendrils as what was left of the modest robes were no longer modest anymore.

Yadrell pointed towards the ritual site and said "Back to work daemon."

The daemon tried to pout in attempt to earn some sympathy as she said "My name is Eliza. Are you sure you wouldn't mind spending a few minutes with me instead of that grouch?"

Yadrell couldn't help but shiver as he quickly said "And see what he would do to us in response for being late? I'll just see what he want and get it finished."

The daemon shook her head in disappointment and left me alone as Yadrell increased his walking pace. The first time He had had met her was in her original possessed body that was some random female cultist. She somehow took a liking to him and after fighting together on the battlefield and she physically forced him into her bed. It wasn't as pleasant as it sounded as the scars left from that night still ached when he saw her. Now she hounds after him trying to convert him or take his soul. After seeing what she does to the devoted cultist he wasn't sure which was worse. Yadrell took one look behind as he saw one of the cultists beg for her blessing. The daemon ripped his arm off as he laughed in ecstatic as she smiled.

Yadrell shivered again as he thought "I may like pleasure, but I prefer living."

So he continued onto the site of the ritual. The site used to be a temple devoted to the god emperor until the tau converted the citizens to the greater good so they changed it to something else until they slaughtered everyone and set up the ritual. Just by opening up the door he could feel the taint of chaos as it warped the room.

Dozens of psychers were working to maintain the ritual as the captured civilians were beginning tossed in as sacrifices. A few of the more important ones were being carried away because they had caught the chaos sorcerer's eye. The ones that did not were forced to continue until a replacement came or they died which properly was more likely. Yadrell walked closer to the ritual site until one of the higher ranking psychers signaled him to come to him. Yadrell sighed in relief thankful he wouldn't be near the chaotic energy again.

The others psychers either ignored his presence deeming him weaker or jealous that he had caught the chaos sorcerer's attention. Yadrell walked into the room and held his breath not out of fear or hesitation, but simply to prepare himself for the smell of the room. As he opened the doors he could see dozens of human and xeno bodies being hung on meat hooks while they were still alive. All manner of runes had been inscribed on their bodies as a few had been slowly tortured not to find information, but simply because it was the sorcerer's hobby and profession.

The sorcerer turned around was the markings of Tzeetch covered the chaos marine's armor. The blue helmet's eyes glowed red as the voice inside the suit chuckled. He motioned for Yadrell to sit down in one of the seats as he stood behind a wooden desk as a man begging for mercy was strapped to it as dozens of knives were plunged into his body.

Yadrell sat down and slowly said "What do you want this time?"

The sorcerer shook his head and said "Say it again with respect. I was the one who saved your life form an endless attempt to flee from the inquisition."

Yadrell sighed as he repeated "What do you want this time… Master?"

The sorcerer spoke as he spoke warmly to Yadrell "I have need of some of your lesser talents. The tau want a status report and our dear general was accidently tossed in with the last patch of sacrifices. We tossed the idiot responsible for this mistake with the current patch today."

Yadrell rubbed his throat as the old general's voice came "Is it this one?"

The sorcerer shook his head and said "Not the air cast leader. The water cast one and she was the girl."

Yadrell nodded as a female voice came out "Like this one?"

The sorcerer nodded as he pulled out a data slate and said "This is the status report you need to give. Citizens are smiling, warriors getting ready for the tryanid invasion, and of course that we haven't invaded and started killing everyone."

Yadrell took the data slate and started to go over it as he could feel the sorcerer's gaze still on him. There was something else he wanted to talk about. Yadrell put aside the data slate and waited to see what the sorcerer wanted. The sorcerer and started to pull out the tools of torture from the man's body.

The sorcerer shrugged as he said "I sense a great battle coming. Either the tau will discover our presence soon or the Nids will arrive sooner than expected. For that we must prepare a backup plan… which brings us to why I have brought you along."

Yadrell nodded as he didn't care. It properly was going to be another test or trial to determine if he was ready to be forced to serve tzeetch. Yadrell didn't care for the gods of chaos nor did he care for his master. The only difference he saw between serving him and serving on a rouge trader's vessel was that the job was keeping him alive. Yadrell's only loyalties were to himself which was why he stayed chaos undivided.

The sorcerer pulled out a small egg, a thimble, three white candles that smelled like lemon and a mouse as he put them in a plastic container marked Ritual Material. Yadrell had seen many dark rituals during his time with chaos. Sacrifices involving rules of symmetry where they did all manors of cruel torture before sacrificing the victims or cutting out a new born child out of their mother just to throw them into the fires and those where the pleasant ones. Yet he had never seen such a… meager or simple method before.

The sorcerer slowly said with a hint of disappointment and shame "I had managed to secure a contract with a powerful unaligned daemon. He is power and can crush even the greater daemons aligned to the dark gods, but he is weird."

Yadrell scratched his head for a moment. He had heard of evil, crazed, twisted, psychic, insane, and a lot of other adjectives but weird was never one of them especially from the chaos sorcerer. Even then powerful daemons tended to have large egos and demand lots of sacrifices like the current ritual they were doing. If another ritual could be done much easier and quicker than there must be a reason why even the most power hunger and fanatical of chaos hesitated in using it only for a last resort.

The sorcerer placed the box in front of Yadrell and continued "His price is simple for the most part and summoning him is usually very easy. The only problem is that his price is entertainment. One backwater savage could summon him and be given an army to conquer worlds while another person could summon him only to be landed in the heart of the imperium surrounded by space marines."

Yadrell took the box and said "So he could actually make things worse."

The sorcerer nodded as he replied "I have bartered passage for escape if needed. We shall not be sent somewhere that will kill us, but in exchange he got to pick who summons him and where we shall be sent."

Yadrell slowly nodded as he said "So what must I do?"

The sorcerer groaned as he started to go over the procedure. At best the ritual would take a few minutes as it really was easy to do. The problem was that if the daemon in question made it so simple to do. That properly meant that when they need to do it then it would be hard due to circumstances.

Yadrell walked away from the meeting more confused as he was sent back to his tent to prepare for it. He had been given one of his master's old staves as the daemons that empowered it tried to whisper promises, secrets, or what his fate would hold in an attempt for him to free them. Yadrell responded back with thoughts of what he would do if they didn't shut up and let him think. They went quite as they remembered what happened to the last daemon infused artifact he had been given to. They decided they could wait until Yadrell died from natural death or for some other fool to pick up the staff.

The other psychers looked at Yadrell now in anger as he had been given a blessing from their master along with one of his sacred tomes that held some of his dark knowledge including powerful spells and rituals. Yadrell had started to walk out of the temple until one of the older and more blessed (Or in Yadrell's opinion warped by chance from chaos due to all the rituals) had stood in his way.

The older psycher pulled out a chain sword and said "Give it to me."

Yadrell nodded as he plunged the end of the staff into the psycher's neck. When one of the psycher's comrades tried to help Yadrell opened his hand as multiple dark blasts of energy tore his body apart. The last one tried to steal the tome only to be hit in the back of the head with the very textbook he tried to take. Yadrell tightened the robe around the fool's neck and started to drag him out of the temple.

Yadrell said with a hint of optimism "At least I don't need to find a sacrifice now."

The other psychers went back to work as some of them began to wonder. Did Yadrell received a vision warning him of the assault or had he just expected them to attack him because he was about to leave? One of the slave masters snapped the whip as they stopped thinking about the encounter and focused their energy back on the ritual at hand.

Outside Yadrell continued to drag the body back to his tent as he pulled out an assortment of knives. In just a few moments he had begun to practice the art of torture on the restrained prisoner as he started to look over the text in the tome as he tried to commit the spells and techniques to memory. A part of him began to wonder if his life would always amount to just trying to stay alive and survive the next encounter. Possibly what would happen if the inquisition would do if they finally caught him or what he life would have been if his ship had never been boarded by the chaos heretics. During his darkest nights he would wonder what would have happened if the inquisition had caught him before he went on the run and what his life would have been if he wasn't smart enough to flee?

It was then a small voice whispered in his ear "Serein has betrayed us!"

"What?" Yadrell quickly said as he looked around the room.

The cultist strapped to the table shouted "I said I'm sorry that I tried to steal from you! If you spare my life I promise to serve you!"

Yadrell shook his head as he said "Must be the stress. Now hold still or this knife might miss it's next step and we will have to start all over again. If we get it done right the first time you might actually live."

Yadrell knew it was a lie even though there was a small chance the idiot might live. The only flaws were that he was doing this for the first time and he honestly doubt the cultist had the will or brains to survive the ritual. Maybe hope would keep him alive as the Nids would arrive and suddenly feel like becoming pacifists as they would try to spread peace. Yadrell highly doubted it. Still hopefully it would make him squirm less.

As his mind began to wonder again another voice came "More husks are coming in."

Yadrell stopped as he took a deep breath and addressed his surroundings. The bloody staff had been feed as it was resting just in his reach, but it wasn't in physical contact with him so it couldn't be the cause of it. The idiot had finally passed out or he couldn't make any more noise because his vocal cords had been temporally cut out. Outside nothing was going on as it was quite…

Yadrell quickly turned around and focused on the silence. He should have been hearing the occasional mummer of thoughts or possibly the thoughts of retribution being planned by the other psychers. Yet the warp seemed silent at the moment. The warp was never silent.

Yadrell quickly said to himself "Time to speed up the process. I either make it or I ditch the attempt and grab a few guns."

Yadrell focused all of his attention on the dagger as he cut flesh from muscle and muscle from bone. Soon he had started to discard organs and replace them with bits of patched together metal. He could feel his hatred burning as he continued to work as he knew what was coming. Either the tau had sent a scout to find out what had really happened or the Nids were about to rain down from the sky.

The blade tore through the body until at least it had finished its dark work. The man was still alive in agony when he should be dead. All of his organs laid across the floor as bits of metal now pulsed with a dark force of it's own inside his body. The man's mouth slowly moved as it begged Yadrell to kill him. Yadrell simply nodded as he held out the staff. The man than tried to scream as the daemons inside it devoured his soul as they enjoyed his agony and the cruel twist of fate Yadrell had employed on him. The staff glowed as pleasant thoughts erupted from it as it was satisfied with Yadrell's work.

Yadrell shook his head and said "Just because I fed you doesn't mean I trust you. Now let's kill some xeno."

Yadrell strapped four las pistols he had scavenged off the battlefield and ribbed open his bed spread to pull out a long las as he had kept it hidden in case one of his allies tried to steal it. His thoughts focused on the upcoming battle as he could start hearing thoughts again.

Outside the tent he could hear "They have slaughtered the entire village. Call the air cast for immediate retribution!"

Yadrell pointed the staff at the opening outside as blue flames burst out of the staff. The invisible tau were now on fire screaming in agony as the flames painted their bodies. Yadrell used the sharp end of the staff to impale the surviving tau as the staff feed on their pitiful souls. Already he could hear from the Tau frequencies reports of Nids raining down from below as their imperial allies for their current alliance had spotted a chaos ship in orbit.

Yadrell stopped for a moment and went back inside the tent as he grabbed the box that held the needed ritual materials for escape. He didn't want to have to fight his way back to retrieve them as he headed for the temple. Already he could hear the sounds of battle as the tau started to set siege to the city as Tyranid drop pods started to land as one of them crashed into a nearby building. Yadrell rushed past the chaos soldiers fighting and the khorne worshiping fools who were rushing head first against monsters that would easly slaughter them.

Inside the temple the ritual had started to wane. The sudden presence of the Tyranid hive fleet was causing interference as more slaves were being thrown in just to keep the ritual active. Panic had started to erupt as one of the drop pods had crashed through the roof only for it to be made out of metal. The drop pod opened up as space marine opened fire slaughtering the heratics where they stood as the ritual finally died out as the chaos marines engaged their righteous breatheren. The sorcerer fired a blast of chaos energy killing most of the space marines only for two more drop pods to crash through the building as a tyranid lictor ambushed one of the psychers and started to devor his brain.

Yadrell raced into one of the fallen basement and set out the materials for the ritual. He took a pint of blood from the mouse and place the egg in the center of the three candles as he tried to lit the match to no avail. Wooden floorboards fell down from the celling as a flamethrower and tore through the floor bringing down one of the larger tyranid creatures. Yadrell raced over as he fired the las long at the dead beast to make sure it wouldn't suddenly get up before he took one of the flaming floorboards and raced back to the ritual. He used the flames to light the candle strings as a dark presence had started to form.

Yadrell could not see the daemon but he could feel it's vast powers and the daemon's enjoyment at their torment. All of their foes had suddenly decided to attack them at once as they would be the first ones to die as now they came begging to it for help. Yadrell didn't care as he wanted to be out of there as even an ork infested space hulk sounded pleasant at the moment considering the alterative.

The daemon laughed as it said "A mon a me little soul. Now what can this fella do for you now?"

Yadrell quickly shouted "Get me out of here!"

The daemon chuckled as he quickly replied "But to where?"

Yadrell picked up the staff to protect him and to show his master's authority as he continued "You had already made the pact and the deal so honor it!"

The daemon said with a hint of sadistic joy "But I pick where you shall be! The only problem is my dear friend is that I have yet to pick. So where do you want to go?"

Yadrell shook his head and shouted "I don't care. I just don't want to be here!"

A lictor jumped through the hole as it leapt towards Yadrell. He held the staff up ready to protect himself only for the lictor to freeze in its spot. Everyone else had stopped moving as time seemed to have stopped. Yadrell looked at the daemon as a what seemed to be the sound of a huff of triumph came from it.

The daemon whistled and then said "That little crita was a close call wasn't he little soul. I now give you time to think on your wish and tell me where you want to go."

Yadrell looked at the frozen lictor and said "And the catch is?"

The daemon chuckled as he replied "I'll get to have some fun. It's boring when you pick the destination. OF course I will still pick it, but a few suggestions would make it a lot more fun and entertaining. The last lot actually surprised me as it was the most fun I had in a long while. So take you time as we have all the time in the world."

Yadrell sat down as he focused on it. Daemons liked twisting words around as Tzeetch was a master of the exact words for your doom phrases. Then again if he went too specific the daemon would reject it simply because it wouldn't be fun so being set on a planet to retire peacefully until he died of old age was out of the question or the planet would have some cruel twist.

He pulled out his own personal journal and checked it as he skimmed through the files. The elder were annoying race, but they could be dealt with if needed. The ork were a pain in the butt as a world without them would be good. It didn't need to be mentioned that a world without necrons or Nids was required. Heck a world without the emperor's goons or xeno that wanted to kill him on sight would be asking too much.

The daemon laughed as he said "Then your wish shall be granted!"

"What!" Yadrell shouted out in fear.

The lictor started to move as time went back on course as the daemon started to shimmer away "I took a look at your heart and a page from your thoughts! I just found the perfect place for a little bit of fun!"

He summoned his strength and fired the first spell he had been looking into as it used his own hatred and rage to empower it and right now he had a lot of it. The ground began to shimmer as reality seemed to warp away only to be replaced by a metal hallway as the lictor lunged at Yadrell. The psychic blast tore half of it apart as the talons tore through Yadrell's own armor and as blood started to pour from his side.

The last thing he could see as the body landed on him knocking Yadrell on the floor was a pair of metal boots as someone shouted in surprise. He began to pass out from the harsh method of transportation the daemon had used to save his life from the dreaded fate on the planet. Yadrell's blood began to pool out on the floor.

The last thing Yadrell heard before he passed out was "What the hell just happened!"

* * *

Mass effect

Cerberus base located on Binthu

Faith shook her head as she pulled together all her reports for The Elusive Man. The Cerberus base was in panic as some unknown human and alien that had never seen before had suddenly popped into existence inside the base. They had managed to save the human mostly just to try to figure out what the hell just happened, but Faith could already see all the things that could go wrong. The fact that she was going to be talking to The Elusive Man in real time instead of sending a report was already showing just how bad things were going.

Faith stepped into the room as the live image could been seen from the screen. Faith quickly put away all of her reports as her mind raced on how the next few minutes could put her job and possibly her life on the line. The husk studies and tests were not doing as well as they hopped and the alliance had started to find some of their other hidden testing sites.

The Elusive Man looked at her as he said "Now what is this I hear about some unknown person just suddenly popping into existence inside the middle of a hallway?"

Faith shivered as she said "Properly rumors."

A video clip just played of the man appearing as half of the unknown alien's guts just sprayed against some of the people in the hallway as the attack tore through a section of the building.

The Elusive Man chuckled as he said "I'd call them confirmed now. So how did he do that?"

Faith paused for a moment and then said "Excuse me?"

The Elusive Man replayed the video and stopped at the unknown energy burst and said "Where did that attack come from and how did it just tear through a heavily reinforced section of a top of the military reinforced bunker with ease?"

Faith stuttered as she slowly said "I. No we. Uh… We don't know as we thought the fact he appeared in our base was of greater concern."

The Elusive Man nodded as he said "And your results on it or the alien?"

Faith looked down as she nervously said "Inconclusive. Our equipment wasn't designed for these tests as we simply don't have the budget. If you want we can ship him out on the next transport as we focus back on the original project."

The Elusive Man shook his head and replied "Change of plans. He along with that alien and attack are now your top concern. I will have me people send you some new equipment, but this should help you out until then. Send me daily reports."

The screen turned off as Faith held her breath as she saw the amount of credits just transferred. They could buy their own fleet. She also noticed that all leave had just been canceled as orders for the outpost had just received lockdown orders. None of them were allowed to tell what had just happened.

She didn't know if she should be thrilled at the new budget as they could buy the needed supplies with ease even while on lockdown or terrified that they were now prisoners inside their own base. Their only chance to escape was to get results and whatever The Elusive Man had seen made deemed this project very important.

Faith left the room as she didn't bothering gathering her reports together as she knew they were worthless. They could make husk from the salvaged machines taken from edin prime, but they couldn't take control as they were still the mindless husks that attacked the living on site instead of being used as disposable foot soldiers even if they charged mindlessly at the enemy.

The head of security Dave walked over to meet her as he said "What did he have to say?"

Faith shook her head in disbelief as she repeated "Our top priority is now finding out more about our mystery man along with the unknown alien and attack that tore apart a large section of our base."

Dave quickly shouted "I managed to increase security and patrols!"

Faith shook her head again as she continued "He is not angry. Take a look at the budget he gave us to find out."

Dave took a look at the new figures and slowly said "I'll get the men to get our stranger's weapons out of storage. One of the guards picked up the staff and swore it had talked to him. We checked him into medical and sealed the thing inside heavily armored airtight storage unit and didn't look back."

Faith shook her head as she said "Well that answers one of my questions. Now how do you think everyone will react to our new lockdown orders?"

Drave scratched his newly formed beard and said "Half will complain and the other half will blow a small chunk by "adding necessary items" to the requisition forms due to the vagueness of the project's parameters."

Faith took note of this as she added it to her own separate notes. She needed to keep track of everything now. This was a complete unknown situation and The Elusive Man was going to be watching their every move since he asked for daily reports.

Faith walked over to the medical room as their latest two patients lay in the beds. The big alien nicknamed Alien due to its completely alien biology and appearance one of the scientist called similar to some old earth film was thankfully still dead. Most of it's internal organs were a mess from the blast that had killed it yet they had managed to remove a weapons that seemed similar to a machine gun that still had a human arm attached to it inside it's stomach.

The strangest thing was that it seemed it had been forced it by its victim in an attempt to fire the rounds into the creature's head due to the bullet marks on the inside of the creature's mouth. The creature had apparently won because it ate the gun along with the arm. The weapon was moved to storage along with the other unknown weapons.

The human was called patient two or "Hicks" also by same scientist. He was that had surived, yet the alien attack had left him comatose. The creature had some strange toxin covering it's claws as they were forced to leave him on life support. The only things they could tell wasn't so much who he was, but what he lacked. He was missing the neural implant used to help translate languages of the citadel races. His armor lacked the basic shields derived from the mass effect relays and technologies. In fact he lacked all of the basic treatments and modern medical injections to prevent diseases from intergalactic travel.

Of course the few basic scans had revealed two very strange things. The first part was that while he was in his coma state as the medigel kept him alive and preserved was his brain. It held an unknown section that they didn't really understand. They could also tell that part of the brain was very active despite the coma or because he was in a coma. They didn't have the needed supplies to tell which, but the countless scars on his body and the amount of times his bones had been broken which were finally behind repaired by the medigel proved he had been in a lot of fights.

Still any place that had creatures like the one that laid on the table was properly a very dangerous place. Faith looked at the life signs and medical reports as she started to notice that patient one's was starting to decline. Apparently the poison had started to work it's course through his body. She quickly saw her fate on what would happen if he died and rushed to fix the situation.

Faith shouted "Somebody stabilize that patient!"

One of the doctors shook his head and slowly said "Unless you want to waste the few medigel supplies we have left I suggest we count him as a causality."

Faith grabbed the doctor by the cuff of his shirt and shouted "Use it all if you have to! The Elusive Man just changed out assignment. Our job is to keep him alive for now unless you want to explain to The Elusive Man why you let him die! Here is you expanded budget until The Elusive Man's shipment arrives."

The doctor's eyes widened as he quickly shouted "Get the supplies out now! We can buy our own hospitable if he makes it through afterwards!"

Everyone rushed to work as they went to their new assigned duty to keeping their unknown patient alive. They just caught a whiff of the carrot The Elusive Man was using as they knew what would happen if The Elusive Man decided to switch to the Stick tactic. All the while they worked they had yet to realize that their patient was learning more about them than they realized.

Yadrell dazed unconscious and barely alive head their voices or to be more arcuate their scattered thoughts. He couldn't understand much so he focused on the warp itself for guidance, but mostly for a few vision of the past or present to make sense of his situation.

The warp was strange now in an almost alien way. The silence made by the Nids no longer clouded it, yet it was dull or to be more precise weak. The pull of the dark gods was gone as barely anything rested in the warp itself. It was just plain eerie to Yadrell.

He focused on trying to get a vision yet the tides of the warp had seemed to have changed as he lost sight of himself. He couldn't even seem himself in the warp despite the fact he was still alive. Instead of vision showed him dozens of races, cultures, wars, as it kept flickering from each perspective as Yadrell tried to ease up on just focusing on what effected humanity as it did no good. Then he tried focus on one person just to gain a focus point in the warp itself.

It slowed down as he caught the familiar voice saying "Saren."

He saw two aliens looking at each other. Both of them seemed to look like humanoid lizards with a hint of termagant mixed into their biology. The one in red armor seemed surprised to see the one in white armor as bits of machinery seemed to be embedded into his face.

The red alien said "I wasn't expecting to find the geth here. The situation is bad."

Who were the geth? Some rouge faction? An alien race? Better yet why where they talking instead of communicating with the hive mind? Was this some part of the past before the Tyranid swarm had arrived to devour a part of the galaxy before Humanity started it's great crusade?

The white alien slowly said "You could say I've got it under control."

He pulled his gun as he aimed to shot the white alien from behind. Then he fired the gun as he saw the red alien's body lay on the ground. Yadrell found himself confused. Why was this important? Why should some xeno killing another one be important to his future or humanities?

He blinked as it skipped forward a bit as he tried to find humans only to see the white alien again on some floating device as a small squad of humans was shooting the white xeno called Saren. Some energy came out from the alien as it blasted the ground similar to a psychic attack yet Yadrell couldn't see any presence of one. For one thing he used the attacks to readly as so many continued attacks would draw attention from the warp and if he really was skilled enough to resist the dangers of the warp he wouldn't be using so many weak attacks as he should just level the field with one big attack or a burst of multiple attacks.

The alien called Saren had started talking to a female human with red hair called Shepherd. Apparently Saren had allied himself with the faction called geth. Apparently the fight was about some dispute between some sovereign killing a race of aliens. A group called reapers were used to slaughter them all as some pointless debate was being made.

Submission against a genocidal race that kill trillions? If they were anything like the ones Yadrell was use to then it was the most foolish thing they could do. The Nids would eat the idiots as the orks and necrons would slaughter them and surrendering to chaos in hopes of mercy? They would have better luck firing a bullet to their own heads in the hope it would grant superpowers!

He continued to rant until the human called Shepherd refused as the two fought. They fired a few bullets and attacked each other. It ended with shepherd being grabed only for an alarm to go off as Shepherd punched the xeno in the face. The human ended up escaping along with his team including a group of aliens as the place was blown up.

Yadrell focused on the two. Saren was an idiot, but he had command of a large army as Sheperd seemed to lead people against him. Scenes flashed by as he saw large aliens attacking as more minor skirmishes were fought, but never to the extent of the wars Yadrell was use too. Then it reached near a pivotal moment as a large ship flew into some strange xeno space station.

Yadrell focused on the last scene as he began to realize that the large xeno was the alien called Sovereign as he was the "Vanguard" of an invasion fleet. Saren was taken over as most of his flesh had been replaced with machine parts and Sovereign destroyed the xeno's brain and used controlled the machine body through its mechanical parts like a puppet as it tried to kill Shepherd. A dozen small human ships barely the size of the massive machine swarmed and finally killed the giant alien ship/being.

With Saren dead Yadrell focused on Shepherd as he tried to figure out what was going on. The humans were given a seat of power at the xeno counsel which was strange. Why didn't the humans try to wipe them out? Was this before the hated of xeno species was hard driven and taught to their children in an almost religious fever? Where was the Elder allowing such a large group of aliens being in controlled? They certainly wouldn't tolerate this if they were still in power and since the warp was weak this properly was before their "great fall" as they put it. While the might have tolerated their existence they certainly wouldn't tolerate them calling themselves the "Major Powers" as they put it.

Then the strangest thing seemed to happen in the next few discussions between Shepherd and the counsel. She told them time and time again that the giant alien ship being that nearly slaughtered everyone in their center of power had more allies that were getting ready to invade the universe! This was when Yadrell realized something was very different about this place. Back home guns would be made as battleships would be repaired, rebuilt or possible made to combat the enemy threat. After all if there was one killer alien then there had to be more. Yet the citadel power and their so called "Wisdom" didn't believe it as they called the giant alien ship being a Geth weapon and to make things even more moronic they believed there could only be one of them!

Yadrell felt like screaming at the idiots! If you didn't believe the invasion theory than at least believe more of those things could come! If this so called Geth race that you barely understood had produced one giant massive ship that nearly slaughtered you all then what makes you think they won't just build another one to finish the fraking job! Who is to say they haven't already built another one or another dozen since the first one was so successful!

Yadrell began to feel Shepherd's blight as she seemed to be the only person with a good head on their shoulders. She warned everyone Saren turned traitor and had showed proof of the edin prime assault. They didn't believe it until she showed proof confirming his involvement and genocidal plans. Goes out and says he has a giant space ship ready to attack and where he is going. They do nothing as she goes after the psycho. What happens next? Giant space ship slaughters a good chunk of their fleet and attacks their center of power so she has to save their ungrateful lives. Now she tells them more ships are coming and they still don't believe her? Heck the imperium would have called her a saint by now given her a fleet of ships to kill the fowl aliens.

Yadrell continued to look into the future and suddenly felt less sympathetic. There was her ship right above the planet he was on. There was her people going in and destroying the base because they were terrorists as the people called Cerberus fought back. Now she won and the "bad guys" were dead. This was not looking well for him since he was at the base.

Then he realized two major differences between the vision and his reality. He was not in it. The people were unprepared. Apparently the person in charge had increased security and wiped this base from the other records to ensure its secret due to his arrival. Things had changed due to his presence and arrival.

Yadrell focused as he began to feel the ritual back from the planet he was on again. It was a small pull or crack as he could feel his home was right on the other side. Something had happened as the warp was still being affected by the first ritual and the second ritual that had modified the first one. Fate was being rewritten as new souls were being added as the effects of chaos were starting to take effect.


	2. Chapter 2

_Warp Effect Chapter 2_

_Nice to see some of the reviews but to answer a few questions. I had picked Yadrell to be Chaos undivided for two reasons. The first reason is because of the lack of the Dark Gods due to the warp and living intelligent creatures shaping it the warp for all intense of purposes would be weak or dead in a sense due to the reapers killing everything when the species became advance enough to be devoured. So any gifts or connections to the Dark Gods would be lost after arriving (Except for any chaos mutations of course). The second reason is personality wise. Khonre is axe crazy, Slaanesh is a pervert, Nurgle is Nurgle. That left Tzeetch who has a couple of great schemers, decivers, and a few sane people (who will become insane of course) or Undivided who has a couple of great possibilities as they draw on all the aspects. There are a lot of undivided factions for chaos space marines also. As for the sanity bit… How long do you think an axe crazy guy would do at Mass Effect without any allies?_

_As for the lack of shepherd? Mostly because everyone knows what shepherd would do. We know Cerberus very well throughout the series (mostly 2__nd__ and 3__rd__ game) so seeing a chaos aligned individual trying to work his way into a powerful deceitful group that wants to be in charge at the end of it all. It gives incentive as we can see Cerberus a power hunger faction seeing someone who shares similar ideas offering power. Of course Chaos likes to convert people and Cerberus has a couple of people who would be perfect for chaos (Project over mind justifications and the training used on Jack are examples. Just one small step before the line into chaos)._

_If you have any thoughts or ideas you want to bring up then go right ahead. As for the imperial and the Tau. Well they are coming up next as they haven't just yet fallen to Mass Effect. The Nids are still falling, Chaos is still fighting, Space marines and beating people up while Tau are fighting back. _

* * *

Security report – Day 11 since project Hicks has begun.

Lockdown is a pain as no one is allowed to leave the base. In fact we have been cut off from the other bases as they are also on lockdown as they continue their projects with little change. Supplies have arrived as the latest medical machines are now being set up to monitor and analyze our two new test subjects.

I will admit cabin fever has started to set in for some people. Jackson just a few hours ago swore up and down he saw an ork outside! He described it as a big hulking creature with broken speech and a violent temper. We checked the video logs and found nothing. The guards outside checked and found nothing. We even sent him to get his head examined and found nothing.

Besides ork are the noble warrior types. Everyone who reads a _good_ fantasy novel knows that. If we need hulking barbarians we just take a look at the krogan. Maybe all the examinations and medical tests from examining the alien's corpse started to make his mind play tricks on him.

I must digress as the alien fascinates me. Its brain chemistry has never been seen before as most of its functions are a complete mystery. The few parts we have been able to analyze break the very foundations of bio chemistry that we know of! A few remains of human brain matter was found on its… tendrils, mouth? (Note need to find name or specification for body part.) Apparently it's purpose it to pull out and devour the poor victims brain! What little left of its bodily function began to change as we inserted a raw brain from one of the cadavers. Possibly the nerves had been fired to continue the feeding process from an accident involving it's death. Bio chemical traces of the cadaver brain was broken apart as the alien's brain began to change as the hippocampus began receiving new information as the long-term and short-term memory began to change as it seemed to "add" the new brain material into itself somehow.

I have no idea how the hell it works, but such a creature could be extremely dangerous if it was still alive. Thankfully it died when it arrived. The body is made out of some natural armor and is very hard to kill as some idiot accidently fired a round at its body only for the armor to deflect it as the bullet didn't even leave a scratch. It properly explains the unknown machine gun user's attempt to fire the gun inside the creature's mouth in hopes of killing it.

The weapons themselves are… strange. We have little idea how they work as no one wants to test them out. All of them bare similar designs expect for the staff which everyone refuses to touch as it _gives them the willies_. The staff was just scanned inside the contained for its composition and then sealed shut. The guns are unknown as they are somehow more advance than our own and much older yet they are also man made. We stored them away as no one wanted to try to fire one after their experience with that creepy staff.

The machine gun carries crude yet effect bullets. Nowhere near our current riffles due to mass effect technology and its efficiency, but I still wouldn't want a round fired at me. The staff is a literal mystery. Half of the scans are "inconclusive" and the parts that do only count for a small percentage of iron. Some promethean artifact or possibly some race even older? (Could the crazy Assari Laura and her theories actually be right?) As for the hand guns and larger gun… Material unknown, design unknown, purpose… after the biopsy of the alien. Properly killing things though no one want to try pulling the trigger to test the theory. I advise current protocols until patient wakes up or if he… dies (along with our massive new budget).

The human is also a mystery. The brain is working as the unknown section as generated a few theories amongst my friends here. Half believe it could be something similar to the alien as natural evolution brought it up due to the planet's unknown environment or where ever the hell the thing came from. Some believe it's a dormant part of the brain granting psychic powers due to the mythical 10% only being used and that our subject is using more than 10%. (I must note that the other "percent" is used for you memory, connection to nerves system and working it so you can breathe on que, pattern recognition to help discern one face from another and a _**LOT**_ of other things) As some believe it is something similar to the alien's brain devouring technique. All I know that it is active and more blips appear on the screen when people are talking especially when it's other aliens from some of the extranet channels.

End repo…. What the hell was that thing! I must record this. 1821 military time personal quarters! I just saw creature similar to the dead one. It had sword like appendages as it was ripping apart what looked like a fucking space elf. (God I sound crazy!) Going for full medical check over and review of video footage. If it turns out to be nothing then I am filling a report for some bloody time out of this place even if it is a walk around the fucking bunker!

* * *

40k universe

Samual pulled his fellow comrade aside and sighed in disappointment. One of the foul heretics had just fired a bolter round through his head. They were being pushed back and they weren't going down without a fight as the battle zone was hell on earth. Samual left the corpse behind as a Tyranid bio weapon just struck his position dissolving the corpse with its foul xeno corruption.

Even the Nids were attacking as it had almost become a free for all. Samual ducked behind another piece of cover and kissed the small eagle pendent he wore around his neck for good luck as he gave praise to the emperor for giving him enough time to avoid such a gruesome fate.

"So how is the battle?" A voice beside him asked.

Samual turned his head and saw the yellow armor of some tau fire warrior. Samual raised his hotshot las and fired at a chaos heretic that was about to gun down their position. He regretted it instantly as the xeno filth raised his weapon and fired. A dead tyrandid warrior fell past Samual's side as the xeno chuckled as raised out his hand.

The tau cheerfully said "Thanks for the save imperial. Hope we survive long enough to know your name."

Samual rejected the hand of friendship as he looked back onto the battlefield and said "One the inquisitor has finished the chaos ritual will be stopped. Just give the humans cover and don't get eaten by a Nid Xenos…" Samual bit down on his lip as he was about to add _scum_.

He was one of the inquisitor's chosen to join his team. While this meant he would be able to serve the imperium better it also meant he had to learn to walk the fine line used to keep the imperium in one piece. Part of that at this moment was to be friendly to the Tau only because their planets were being used to shield the imperium from the tryanid invasion. Better the xeno filth take down a few more Nids to keep a few more imperials alive than to waste a shot on him. Besides he could always be used as a body shield if one of the warrior variants came at him.

Samual looked back at the temple as it started to change. Something had happened inside. Did the inquisitor fail as chaos finished the ritual? Could it be that some foul Nid creation and fallen inside the temple and emerged?

Samual fired another blast at one of the cultists attempting to come close enough to hurl a frag grenade at them. He didn't know but at the moment he needed to find out. Staying here wouldn't do much good as either the inquisitor needed extraction or the higher ups needed to be informed about the change in development. Sometimes Samual hatted his new job as it required to look at the "bigger picture" as usually was the right thing to do. It didn't make it any easier though.

Samual shouted at the Tau "Change of plans Tau! We need to check the temple. Either the inquisitor has succeeded and the space marines are pinned inside the temple in need of a little bit of help. Or something bad just happened and high command needs to know to level the place from orbit if they can!"

The Tau nodded as he regretfully said "For the greater good then."

Samual understood the alien's meaning. He wasn't looking forward to trying to out run an orbital strike in the middle of a battlefield either. Still if it won them the battle it was a sacrifice that was needed to be made. Samual rose out from his position and ran towards each piece of cover that lead him closer to the temple. The Tau followed him as they gave each other cover as they tried to reach the next piece of cover that brought them closer to the temple.

It didn't take long to reach outside of the temple as Samual ducked past a lictor that jumped over him and managed to make it inside. One of the tyranid warriors had spotted him as it leapt forward ready to impale him with its bone swords. Samual tried to pull out his chain sword as he knew the creature would get to him first. Then something strange happened that Samual couldn't understand as his blade came out first only to hit nothing as the warrior was stuck floating in the air.

The tau beside him said something in his native language. A plasma shot from his riffle was halfway in the air near the warrior. Everywhere else the battle was going normally yet the temple had just frozen itself in time. The tau warrior took aim as he stepped in front of Samual and fired again. This shot stopped right in front of the warrior's head.

The tau chuckled as he said "I couldn't resist and let this chance pass us up. Now lets move out of the way."

"Wait!" Samual quickly shouted as he stopped the Tau. Samual grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it in the air. Right were the tai was about to go the dirt froze in the air. "That would have been messy. The enemy might have had the same idea if you got stuck just like the Nid."

The tau nodded as replied "Thanks. Any idea how we can get inside?"

Samual thought about this for a moment. The warp was unpredictable as even time held no meaning against it. Everything outside may have been frozen in that second, yet inside weeks could be passing in minutes. Was this an attempt to buy more time or was the ritual almost finished?

Samual grunted as he simply said "The emperor finds a way."

* * *

Adam checked over the security reports again. Things were not making sense. People were seeing "visions" now. He had first placed the blame on cabin fever until one of the "visions" killed one of the soldiers outside as the videos and corpse of the alien showed that it was real. Now everyone stayed inside the base in full armor including the scientist.

Then the other bases and started having problems with communications. Daily reports skipped a day or the next day's report came before the current day's report. In fact The Elusive Man had confirmed that similar problems were happening with their own reports being sent to him. Now a clock was played with each meeting on both sides.

Adam rubbed his head as he said to himself "What the hell is going on here?"

He looked outside at one of the camera as a larger alien creature similar to the first one lurked around the perimeter. It walked around scouting the area and stopped right in front of the mines. The creature stepped past the mined area and started to move closer to the turret. Adam activated the turret as the creature suddenly leapt onto the turret and ripped open a circuit panel as it disabled the turret quickly by pulling out the exact wires needed to disable the system.

A few soldiers spotted the beast as they opened fire. The creature charged forth ready to slaughter them all until one of them activated the flame thrower setting the beast ablaze. Thankfully the biopsy of the creatures revealed a weakness to fire. The only problem was they were learning as they came one at a time disabling the base's defenses. The soldiers fired a few rounds into the creature's head to ensure this one wasn't playing dead like the one that attacked a week ago before they brought it inside the base.

Adam muttered to himself "Are these things causing the communication damage? Better yet where the hell are they coming from?"

"Where are what coming from?" Faith said behind his back.

Adam quickly turned around as he apologized "Sorry. Just talking to myself. Dam aliens took out another turret as it avoided the mine field with ease. It shouldn't take long to fix with a mechanic, but if more than one of those dam things appear at once we could be in trouble."

"Be thankful for small miracles." Faith replied

Adam nodded as he tried going over the few variants of the alien corpses they had analyzed. The smaller ones had claws and moved around like dogs. They barely had any higher brain functions yet when near one of the larger Aliens they moved in coordinated tactics. It was becoming policy to shoot the big ones first so that the smaller ones would become disorganized. The larger ones were similar to the first dead one expect for a few minor tweaks between each one. Each encounter and dissection revealed new things about them that frightened Adam.

It wasn't until one of the latest "visions" that had frightened Adam the most. A swarm of the smaller creatures had turned real and slaughtered one of the bases. They killed everyone as a couple of larger ones they hadn't seen before lead them. All that was left of the base was the alien variants that were feasting on their corpses as the others had vanished back to where ever the hell they came from. If a similar incident happened near their base most of them would die.

Adam kept trying to improve the defenses yet one of those dam aliens kept dancing past it all and continuing the sabotage as it just showed how pitiful their defense really was. At this point he would rather try fighting the rachni than these beasts.

Faith spoke a little louder "I said our mystery patient has finally woken up."

Adam quickly turned as he said "You mean the alien was faking his death!"

Faith shook her head as she tried to stop him from panicking and said "No the human! The dead alien is still dead! Better question is how are you doing?"

Adam sighed as he laid back in the chair and said "Last month all we had to worry about was testing husks and worrying about the alliance catching wind of our operations. At this point I would take on shepherd leading a krogan army instead of these monsters."

Faith smiled as she said "Well you can ask our new guest any questions you have."

Adam rose up from his seat saying "I'll take you up on the offer. Just hold me back if I get out of hand."

* * *

The room seemed to pulse as Yadrell tried to focus again. This was the worst part after waking up from searching the warp for answers. A piece of it still stayed with you as you could see every future chance and possibility. That sounded great at first until you got to see the same stupid coin tossed up in the air over fifty times just going a little bit different in the air. Then comes the spilt decisions and analyzing with counter analyzing as your brain tried to either comes to term with the new knowledge or what you would do with it. Because since you saw the future it means things can change so while you could avoid being shot in the head in the next fight. It didn't mean you would win a fight you saw you win or that the next guy would shoot you after you dogged the first bullet.

The voices were fractured as he could hear dozens of languages all talking to each other as half of it sounded like gibberish. Grant it he had a knack for languages and voices. It didn't mean he would instantly know it right away. More like speak a poorly broken version like an ork speaking gothic and understanding one out of three words. It took a bit of time to be able to completely learn and speak it all.

He rubbed his head as his eyes re-adjusted to reality and what was the first thing he saw near him. A fraking lictor.

* * *

Adam and Faith just entered the room as they saw the mystery human shouting in panic as he quickly backed away from the alien corpse. An array of energy blasts just appeared in the air as it tore apart the corpse as the doctors and scientist panicked. Adam pulled out his gun as Faith tried to calm everyone down.

Faith looked at the mystery human and shouted "We don't mean you any harm!"

The mystery human shouted "Fraking Lictor! Kill it! Kill it!"

Adam shouted beside her "Did he just level the table and the alien corpse without any weapons! I though you said he wasn't a biotic!"

The mystery man shook his head and said "No biotic. Human! Hu-Man!"

Faith quickly put herself in-between Adam and the Mystery man as she slowly said "We do not mean you any harm. We do not mean you any harm!"

The mystery man looked up at Faith and shouted "Inquisition?"

Faith shook her head and said "What?"

The man rubbed his throat as she heard her own voice say "Inquisition?"

Adam shivered as he said "Alright that was freakier than the biotic attack."

Faith froze as she tried to figure out what to say. Hearing her own voice spoken by the mystery man had temporally stunned her. Still she had to keep him alive in one piece because The Elusive Man wanted him and after seeing what he could do in just the few minutes he was awake she also wanted to know.

The man slowly spoke in her voice again "Do. You. Understand. Me?"

Faith tried to relax as she said "I can understand you just fine. Can you please stop talking in my voice?"

The man continued to slowly speak "Copied words. Do you understand?"

Adam shouted back word by word. "Yes! We! Understand! Stop! Using! Her! Voice!"

The man relaxed and said "Good."

Faith looked at one of the scientist and quickly said "Who fucked up?"

One of them shouted "What?"

Faith pointed as the mystery man and shouted "How come we can understand him and he can barely understand us! So who fucked up on the language translator implant?"

One of the scientists slowly said "We couldn't install one due to his unique brain chemistry. We needed to check the brain waves and set the frequency…"

The Mystery man rubbed his head and shouted "You can frakking understand me and none of you idiots bothered with one to let me understand you! Just because I'm a frakking polyglot doesn't mean I know every frakking thing you're saying!"

Everyone looked at the Mystery man in confusion. He didn't hear all of the conversation, but he was picking up enough to understand it. Even then the fact he could naturally translate languages was surprising. Faith tried to get into position for diplomacy again.

Faith started her speech "We are a part of."

The mystery man interrupted her "My name is Yadrell Quralles. Call me Yadrell. I can brief you on you tryanid infestation. The aliens like the lictor corpse on the table. If you need to ask me questions than please talk loud and slowly for me to understand. Hopefully your cogheads will figure out how to get the translator working before everything goes to the warp."

Someone else would have shouted or gotten angry as his sudden interruption and his harsh reaction to them. Faith knew better. He had just woken up next to the thing that nearly killed him. The egghead had screwed up as they should have at least moved his body to another room instead of keeping it there to monitor the brain activity. Besides if she shouted in rage like anyone else would have she properly would be talking to fast as he wouldn't understand a single thing she said.

So Faith sat down and started to recount what they knew about him. She went in detail as she told him about the alien and how they managed to keep him alive. How the people in the base started to receive "visions" and how the alien race he labeled Tyranids had just destroyed one of their smaller bases on the planet. She didn't add the communication problems or the fact they were part of Cerberus now. If someone could do that much damage unarmed and barely dressed she didn't want to see what would happen if he knew a rouge organization some people would label as terrorists would do.

Yadrell listened intently as he tried to understand the conversation and more importantly their situation. It was obvious that he knew a lot more about their problem than they did by his reactions. It also helped that he stayed in the room while they scientist kept monitoring his brain activity as some of them claimed what he was doing was impossible.

When she finally finished Yadrell slowly said "Are you part of the counsel?"

Faith paused for a moment and then said "What counsel?"

Yadrell sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose and said "If you don't know the Nids then this isn't the Tau world. If you don't recognize the effects of the warp then this differently isn't my home or where I'm from."

Yadrell shrugged and then said "That leaves here where ever here is. All I know about "here" is that a rouge Spector named Saren killed some alien. Took a bunch of aliens called geth to attack the counsel as Shepard had to save their butts. Yes the reapers are real. Yes there are more of them coming and yes they want to kill _all_ of you as they don't give a dam who you are or what you think. They are just genocidal monsters. Oh and a race called the batarian has a ship in orbit that wants to kill you all."

They all looked at him in a mixture of expressions. The doctors looked at Yadrell as if he was crazy. The scientist where checking who had been talking to the patient in his sleep. Adam was shouting into his radio for a status report while Faith looked at him in surprise and fear. How could someone who had been in a medically induced coma for over a month know so much?

Yadrell smiled as he said "You could say I'm psychic. The real answer is much more complicated and I would need a translator to understand your questions. Now where is my armor and weapons and by the warp don't tell me someone was dumb enough to hold the staff. That is a very complicated story that we do not have time for. Just keep it locked away until I get it to ensure it doesn't kill anyone."

* * *

Samual and the Tau managed to make it near the temple doors as whatever force that kept it frozen in time was starting to dwindle away. The space marines were pinned down by the chaos heretics as a few of them laid dead. Samual pulled out one of his frag grenades as he found the group that was keeping the space marines suppressed from heavy bolter fire.

He tossed the grenade and shouted "For the Imperium!" It bounced across the floor killing a group of cultist.

The heretics turned on them and opened fire as Samual and the Tau hid behind one of the temple walls. The place was overturned as the massive warp gate had pulsed with a dull light. Samual poked his head out and saw the inquisitor dead along with his team as daemons hacked apart their bodies. He saw another inquisitor uniform in the massacre as Samual prayed for the emperor's blessings on their souls.

The chaos Sorcerer shouted in anger "You stupid idiot! My apprentice got us a way out of here and you with your daemon botched it for this! You plan failed you idiot!"

The chaos marine shouted back "We shall take this planet! The power your daemon used is strong enough to power my own ritual. We shall take this planet and our forced with us!"

The Chaos sorcerer fired a few blasts at the space marines and shouted "And you tied it to the swarm! You are dragging the entire planet along with our enemies you fool!"

The Tau fired a shot at the chaos marine as the plasma bolt seared through a section of the helmet, but not enough to kill the chaos marine. He turned and charged towards them. Samual looked behind them as he recognized one of the Lictors and pulled Tau down as the two monsters struck each other and started fighting to the death.

Samual fired his hotshot as he tried to get rid of the cultist trying to limit the space marines movement. One of the Tau Crisis Suits came through the ceiling and activated it's flamers burning the chaos marines as it moved over to help them. Then something strange happened as it came closer only to suddenly disappear. The Tau swore under his breath as Samual chalked it up to chaos sorcerer.

Tyranids started to vanish as the chaos marine laughed in joy as he believed they now stood a chance. The ground started to shake as it felt like the planet was slowly being ripped apart.

* * *

Adam shook his head as he said to Faith "You can't honestly believe the bullshit he is saying!"

Faith sighed as she said "What other explanation do we have? Time is being messed up. Batariens are up in orbit but one of their shuttles to reach this planet has stayed in the air not moving for over an hour as the so called Tyranids are starting to appear more frequently."

Adam shouted "What if he is lying or working with the Batariens?"

Faith looked at Adam as if he was an idiot and said "Then how did he know they were here? Better yet if they actually knew our position why didn't they just blast us from orbit? It would at least explain the aliens."

Adam threw his arms up in the air and shouted "I have been forced to believe a lot of shit these past few weeks especially from all the bullshit these so called _Nids_ keep pulling, but I draw the line at alternate universes!"

Faith held up one of the hand held laser pistols and said "And how do you explain hand held laser guns? None of the races have this technology and its older than the promethean dig sites and made by humans. Either he built himself a time machine and he's from some alternate fucking future or he from a different universe all together."

Adam shouted the last thing he could think of "And the staff?"

Faith simply shrugged as she replied "That I call bullshit. It has a demon imprisoned in it as he is some part of an inquisition made to deal with them. That line was bull feed to us because he is hiding something. I should know as I had spent most of the morning trying to come up with some way to feed a similar line of bullshit to him as let's face it. Cerberus doesn't have that great of a reputation currently."

Adam tried to relax as he knew this was why Yadrell had given them time to think about it and only told the two of them. He was leaving it up to them to tell everyone else what to expect. The fact some powerful demon was fucking with reality and dumping a section of his universe on their planet hardly made any sense at all even in a cheap sci-fi vid… or did it count as fantasy because they had demons?

Still it was hard to argue with the facts they were running into. The aliens had never been seen before. They literally popped into existence and the fact more of them were coming didn't help them feel better. Now that they matched the reports up with Yadrell's little story they could see the increasing frequency of the aliens appearing more often now and in larger groups. It would only be a matter of time until one group stayed long enough to overwhelm them simply in numbers if not tactics.

Yadrell's knowledge was a mystery in itself. He made a strong impression with his little story about what he knew about their universe, but what made them believe he was from another universe was his lack of knowledge. He couldn't use an omni tool as he outright refused to believe they had shields that could stop bullets on even the most basic armor as it was common everyday technology instead of some highly devolved top secret government technology. Never mind weapon technology he could barely operate basic technology as they knew he wasn't acting simply from the expression on his face.

Still the las weapons were deadly as they practiced a few shots against some training dummies and found out one major detail that affected their world. The unknown machine gun was called a bolter as it was supposed to be their more advance technology due to the rounds, and power it held. Custom rounds might help, but it was less effective over all against their own technology as shields would stop the bullets. The las pistols on the other hand. The shields didn't even affect it as each shot struck the target dead on ignoring the shields. He just had five weapons that nullified their most significant and highly used defensive technology they had. These weapons alone would change the very face of the battlefield if their secret ever got out and Yadrell had let the two of them keep a las pistol as a sign of good faith, but mostly to try to earn their trust.

Anyone who wasn't brain dead wouldn't give up one much less two of these weapons without a fight. Heck the weapons would make The Elusive Man jump for joy as any organization would sell them a planet in exchange for the weapons. It was the main reason why they didn't wright Yadrell off as crazy. They needed to know what else he had or could give to give humanity an upper hand.

Adam smiled as one of the alien corpses what put up for target practice and fired the las pistol. The shot barely affected the armor as his own machine gun had did a better job despite it being less advance. Adam grunted as he knew it wouldn't be that simple. If their world was full of those things and lasers barely affected the thing then he could see why he would consider machine guns better weapons.

Adam put away the las pistol as Faith finally said "Feeling better?"

Adam nodded as he checked the status of the incoming Batarian vessel and said "And now I know how the council must have felt when Saren's Geth fleet attacked the Citadel. Still at least I have the brain to realize something needs to be done even if I don't understand much less believe the full story. He knows more about these aliens than we do and more are coming from where ever the hell their hiding or from his so called alternate universe."

Faith put away her las pistol and slowly said "Now comes the real question… What do we tell The Elusive Man? We just found working laser weapons that the crazy man claiming to come from another universe just gave to us and we are about to be invaded with a large alien force that we cannot fight until it appears in our reality?"

The ground shook as Adam pulled out his riffle and looked out into the shooting range. An entire section and been torn apart as now a large space ship had just appeared out of thin air. Adam quickly patched into the cameras and held his breath. It wasn't an alliance ship or any they knew of. Yet it had all the markings usually accompanied by a human ship. The most surprising thing was the size of a battleship as it was parked right outside their base.

Adam shook his head as he said "And fate accepted our challenge. I'll get a few squads together while you try to convince our new guest why we should take his ship for ourselves."

Faith slowly nodded as she said "It would be better if we packed up everything we had and decided to leave now."

Adam stopped as he quickly said "You mean abandon the base? First of all I the batarien ship would open fire on us. Second The Elusive Man would blow a casket."

Faith pointed at the ship and said with a hint of panic "And if another ship suddenly appears? This one tore apart a section of the base before we could react! What if a group of his aliens just suddenly appeared inside our base or an entire building? What would happen then?"

Adam shivered for a moment as the thought of an entire building suddenly appearing in there location sent a cold shiver up his spine. Even the cheesy scifi flicks said it was one of the worst things that could happen. Then the thought of an entire army appearing inside their base instead of outside like he had been preparing for. That convinced them that they needed to leave and just try to explain their reasoning to The Elusive Man afterwards.

Adam slowly nodded as he said "Understood. I'll check for any pilots while you check if he can also fly a ship. It's time to start having all of the Cerberus operatives pulling out including the ones from the different bases. I think a ship this big can support them all."

Adam left the shooting range to gather some people together to search the ship for survivors or incase more Tyranids had appeared along with the ship. Faith on the other hand walked over to the room Yadrell was staying in. He kept away from everyone mostly because it unnerved him that they could hear him just fine and he could only catch ever other word.

Faith rubbed her head as she started to write down her own report for The Elusive Man. A strange weapons triangle had started form with the new information of the weapons. The las weapons would beat their shields yet their guns were more effective against the alternate universe armor. Of course the triangle formed when you added the Tyranids. While the alternate armor was more effective against lasers the Tyranids seemed to have adapted a resistance against lasers which left the machine guns to be more effective against them. Essentially they could beat the Nids while the Nids beat the alternate humans while they beat them. The problem was if they got rid of the Nids what would happen to them?

Faith stopped as she noticed she had passed by the door. Faith quickly took out a aspirin and popped it into her mouth as she tried to relieve her head ache. She was starting to get as bad as Adam as the stress was getting to her. Faith took a deep breath as she tried to calm down and focus on the present. First make sure everyone got out of it alive. Then focus on galactic changing events.

Faith opened the door as she couldn't help but stare at awe. The room seemed to be charged somehow as Yadrell held a tome open as he slowly chanted under his breath. The translator couldn't translate it because it had no comparison to base it off of. Yet she could feel the power of whatever it was her omni tool registered the massive amounts of energy being generated. A sword seemed to be forming out of the very energy as it floated in front of Yadrell.

Faith quickly turned on her omni tool as her curiosity got the better of her. She scanned the area as she tried to mark down the various things happening. The energy was unknown. The substance was unknown. Everything was unknown expect for the brain scan. It kept flickering as the unknown area seemed not so much be in control, but tapping into something. Any Biotic would have fired themselves if they tried to generate this much energy yet Yadrell seemed to be able to break the very laws of physics with ease.

The alarm on her omni tool beeped as Yadrell's eyes opened as the sword disappeared. The room starting to go back to normal as the energy readings disappeared. He quickly shut the book and grunted in frustration as she had accidently caused it to fail. Faith stayed quite as she waited for him to calm down especially with the question in hand about the ship outside.

Yadrell sighed as he said "Yes?"

Faith started to speak slowly so he could understand her words "A ship as appeared. It tore off a section of the shooting range when it appeared. Could you check to see if it is friendly and if we could use it to get off this planet?"

Yadrell didn't say anything for a few moments until he finally said "What symbol did it have on its side?"

Faith tried to relax as she said "Eagle."

Yadrell grabbed his weapons and raced outside the room. Faith quickly ran after him as she tried to figure out the source of his panic. They continued to run as Yadrell made it to the to the shooting range as Adam shouted. Yadrell paused right in front of the massive ship and started to laugh out loud for everyone to hear.

Faith quickly shouted "What is it!"

Yadrell shook his head in disappointment and slowly said "Just a small Imperial transport ship. It properly doesn't even have any weapons."

Faith and Adam quickly looked back at the massive ship. Just a small transport vessel? What did a large one look like then or better yet one of their battleships! They had just started to realize the vast difference between them as some of the men started to whisper about the new revelation.

Adam walked over to Yadrell and slowly said "It's big enough to get us out of here. Can you pilot the ship?"

Yadrell slowly nodded as he said "I can drive it, but the Batarien have a ship with guns. Won't this one be out gunned? I mean it's tiny compared to a warship."

Adam shook his head as a chill went down his spine before he said "This ship is bigger than their ship. Even without weapons we might be able to escape. Will you join us to help check if anyone is alive."

Yadrell stood up and said "We can go straight to the bridge and check the ship's bio sensors to check for anyone left alive. Then we have to stop the gate from dumping anything else here."

"Agreed" Faith quickly said.

She was holding one of the machine guns from the shooting range. She wasn't about to let them out of her sight. Transport ships carried thing like guns, armor and a large assortment of items including maps. The maps alone would determine if Yadrell's story was true as it would also help if there were any other advanced items lying about.

They marched out of the base to investigate the unknown ship.

* * *

Cetok the batarin leader rested uneasily in his chair as the shuttle just broke the planet's atmosphere. It felt as if an entire army just walked across his grave and judging by everyone else's expressions they felt it too. Something was wrong about this planet as they could feel it in their bones.

Cetok shouted at the pilot "What just happened?"

The Pilot shouted back "No idea. We just broke orbit along with the others… The first shuttle reads that over a week has passed by!"

Cetok was about to tell him to stop being an idiot, but the strange sensation of the planet stopped him. It felt like one of those horror films he used to watch as a child expect he was one of the characters. Something was defiantly wrong.

Cetok simply muttered "Dam Cerberus dogs must being screwing around with something." Cetok raised his voice "This is why human are scum of the galaxy! They don't know when not to fuck with something!"

They shouted in response agreeing with Cetok as he couldn't help bit shiver. He found the base through one of the recordings he took from a Cerberus base and figure it would be a great place to get slaves to sell. It was a very good and justified plan. Cerberus was the worst of the human scum and even they admitted that. So taking Cerberus as slaves was actually a noble goal in a sense as even the citadel counsel would even agree. The only reason why he didn't was because Shepherd was taking them out and he didn't want to go toe to toe with her. She had the counsel's respect and while she might have no qualms with him getting rid of the scum she wouldn't let him get away with selling them as slaves. Thankfully she didn't notice this base as her ship flew out for some other job to do.

Cetok began to drum his fingers against the M-98 Widow as he started to have doubts. He had seen shepherd having to deal with husks, cloned rachni, and other Cerberus experiments. The fact this base was removed from their lists meant they were doing something much bigger here. Even then the planet looked a lot different now from when they saw it from their ship.

Cetok took a deep breath as he pulled up an old log made by someone. It was a list of things they would not do during a horror film. Right now he had strong feeling it would be helpful if not to at least to give him a few good laughs. The shuttle started to land as Cetok continued to look at the list. The doors opened up as a large alien stood outside and turned towards them.

Cetok shouted "Shoot it!"

The beast jumped out them as it tore apart one of his soldiers. Its tendrils covered the man's head as they heard the neck snap. Cetok fired the M-98 Widow point blank into the back of the creature's skull. It jerked to the right as the round tore through a part of its face as a small group of tendrils that hit the ground. The creature ran away as it carried away its victim.

Cetok shouted in rage "Why the hell didn't anyone see that thing before we decided to open up the doors!"

The pilot shouted in a panic "It wasn't there. The vid showed that it just appeared as soon as the door opened up."

Cetok was about to say something until he saw a dozen smaller alien creatures run though the ship as if it didn't exist at all. A larger one bigger than the ship itself followed them as its ghostly image moved through the ship with ease. Cetok rubbed his eyes and checked the cameras to reveal they actually were not there.

Cetok sighed as he slowly said "Suit up and get the masks on. We need to capture one of those Cerberus goons alive and get some answers from them."

Cetok looked out into the open terrain as he could find any traces of the alien. Things were not looking good right now. Still he wasn't going to let some Cerberus screwed up project stop him.


	3. Chapter 3

Warp Effect chapter 3

Chapter 3

_Next chapter up and loaded. I did read the comments about getting a beta reader. Just have to add enough under my profile to get that option. (Like I said before I am a new writer. Also thanks for some of the thoughts and comments including some of the 40k info. I didn't want to stick too much information the materials right away simply because I figured I would finish the planet side mission first. All I can say is that they will get off the planet with some of the Imperium's technology. Though understanding and replicating them is a different thing. Adamantium would be a difficult thing for Mass effect to reproduce since they relay heavily on Kinetic Barriers or "shields" for armor. Remember that not everyone in 40k knows that much about the technology except how to use it (Much like knowing how to drive a car, but not how one works.). _

_So do not expect a lot of techno babble from Yadrell. That is reserved for the Cerberus scientist and any accidental 40k survivors who get stuck in the Mass Effect Universe. Yadrell is more concerned about saving his own skin and keeping his Chaos identity a secret. Being part of a harsh government of the Imperium could work though I doubt most people would open a chaos heretic into their group with open arms._

_Hopefully this will help answer some questions. As for the two headed eagle mistake... I should have fixed that or simply posted this part first. _

_Last difference I might as well get out in the open. One of the major differences between the Mass Effect universe and the 40k universe is their past. 40k had the Old Ones who fought the necrons and their dark masters. Their screw up caused the birth of the chaos gods and the weakening of the veil that keeps reality from the warp. Mass effect has the good old Reapers who killed every "cycle" each time they came through. So any thoughts on psykers (since they were made by the Old Ones to fight their war) and the Mass Effect Universe would be appreciated. (I see half saying some of Mass Effect would be extremely weak or "budding" psykers while the other half saying they wouldn't have any because the veil between their reality and their warp is much stronger which would prevent the so called "psyker effect" since more are born near high warp areas like the Eye of Terror._

Author note – _I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop. _

_Hope you have a good time reading it and not pull out too much hair from any parts that may annoy you. _

* * *

**Dead Weight**

Faith looked around the inside of the ship in awe. Part of it seemed alien as she couldn't recognize some of the designs or symbols, yet for the most part it was human. Yadrell quickly walked down the twists and turns of the corridors as he went straight to the bridge. How he could tell where it was she had no idea. He just continued to walk quickly ahead of them as he didn't seem to stop for anything.

Adam couldn't help but hold his gun tightly as a sudden fear of claustrophobia had overcome him. Too many run in with the strange aliens called Tyranids had made him wary as the tight corridors would make a fight against the monster very difficult. In fact Adam couldn't think of any vids that ended well with killer aliens in small corridors. The worst part was how Yadrell seemed to move with ease in this twisted maze as Adam felt like he was one of the extras in those horror movies. Any second he would get lost as a dozen of those Lictor things would appear. The fact that Yadrell had told them that the image of the eagle was supposed to be a two headed except one of the apparent fresh attacks had damaged it didn't help as a small part began to wonder if the ship could get off the ground.

Yadrell's mind race as he followed the layout of the ship as he read the simple signs and directions on the wall. At first he was racing towards the bridge trying to find the progress of the battle zone he had left. The warp was a tricky thing as even time held no meaning. Years could pass on the planet as only a few seconds passed here. The battle could be won as everyone back home would think he had died during the battle… or only a few seconds had passed as a dozen space marines had seen him along with orders to shoot on site. Needless to say passage of time between the two universes was an important detail.

It was only when he noticed the Cerberus factions kept following did he realize something was strange. In an attempt to "accidently" take a wrong turn Yadrell had turned down the wrong corridor as they followed him. He even turned down two more as they still followed him. He had even overhead one of the soldiers asking how he even knew his way around the ship. That was when he realized they couldn't read the writing on the walls. While they had managed to build some device that could translate any language (Or most of them it seemed) they couldn't read low gothic.

Yadrell quickly added this piece of information away in his head as he realized the second problem he had. He didn't have much to offer this Cerberus faction. Laser weapons seemed important to them and if this ship still had any leftover or damaged weapons from the imperial guard could be worth something here. The only problem was how to ensure they simply didn't get rid of him. Even then it took more than one person to pilot this ship unless stumbling through the warp was an option. Yadrell couldn't help but shiver at the thought of being stuck adrift in the warp. Sure this universe had a much calmer warp than the one from his universe it didn't change the fact how dangerous it could be.

He had stopped for a moment as a large section of the hallway had a chunk missing from it. Blood was spattered on the walls from both human and xeno as only the remains of a hacked apart servitor and tech priest remained. Yadrell inspected the area as he found two frightening details about the ship that had happened during its transition to this universe. The first one was that it was being boarded by the Nids and the second detail which was both frightening and he was grateful about was that most of the living had not made the transition with the ship. Yadrell didn't know if that meant they would soon arrive latter or stuck back home in the void of space, but a ship not infested with Nids was a good thing at the moment. Still the question on why the tech priest and the torn apart servitor were still here needed to be answered.

Yadrell hunched down as he inspected the two of them and couldn't help but smile. The few bits of remaining flesh had been seared onto the metal. It looked as if the man had been killed with a flamer instead of being torn apart by claws. While his body may have made the trip he certainly didn't or wouldn't have survived it.

Adam shook his head as he said "What the hell happened here?"

Yadrell simply shrugged as he said "Nids attempted to board the ship. They got slaughtered and then the ship came to this universe minus most of the crew. The few cog heads and servitors are that made it through the trip are properly fried. A pity really."

Faith looked at the hole in the side of the ship and said "Boarded? I thought they were a localized threat."

Yadrell laughed out loud as he said "Localized threat? They also have space ships. Well Bio ships technically, but to answer your question. Yes they are space fairing. They just simply decided it would be better to eat new races instead of greeting them."

Adam shivered as he said with a hint of regret "How big are their ships?"

"Much bigger than this one." Yadrell said with a hint of disappointment. "A couple of Kilometers long if you don't include the tentacles. Their purpose is to drop thousands of Nids onto the planet they want to eat and shoot down any ships that try to stop them."

"Kilometers?" Faith said in disbelief "Where would they have gotten the resources to build such a thing?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "Why simply from the worlds they devour. They eat all of the living bio mass. Drink the oceans till their bone dry and then temporarily terraform the planet to devour every inch of life across the world and then recollect themselves and leave the planet a barren husk or essentially a dead world. Heck some people say they even devour the atmosphere of the worlds they devour. Properly why the imperial navy uses exterminates on worlds doomed to be over taken by the Nids."

"They do what?" Adam asked as he knew he wouldn't like the answer.

Yadrell made the imitation of a gun with his hand and said "Simple. They take one of their big old battle ships and pop." He jerked his hand back imitating a gun going off "The ship opens all cannons or their BFG and blast the planet. Sometimes the resulting blast leaves the planet a desolate husk as it can no longer support life. Other times it destroyed the planet leaving a freshly made asteroid field in its place. Still it's better than the Nids devouring the planet and restocking their supplies to make more Nids."

Everyone went silent as the news had hit them hard. The worst case they saw was another rachni outbreak. They did not expect ships bigger than their fleet and where blowing up planets was a needed option. They slowly inched around the missing chunk in the corridor and tried to get to the other side. Faith tried to come up with a different topic that wasn't as morbid as the Tyranids.

She tried to smile as she said "So what happened to the guy with the mechanical implants?"

Yadrell shrugged as he said "The servitor was built out of a human corpse, criminal, or vat grown clone and then had wires stuck to its brain until they could do simple tasks. You know the usual stuff like pick up boxes, hold tools, and slaughter xenos or people in some cases."

Adam looked back at the bodies as he said in disbelief "You built corpse soldiers?"

Yadrell sighed and said "A lot of good it did the tech priest. They're the only ones who know how to do it. The tech priest was the guy in the red robes. Most of them remove their "fleshy components" and replace with mechanical versions willingly. It makes them closer to their clockwork version of the Emperor. I'd call them crazy, but their good with a wrench and have a monopoly of fixing, repairing, and making most of the Imperium's technology including ships and weapons. Honestly the imperium would be lost without them."

Faith quickly made a mental note to see if they could do an autopsy on the bodies. Who knew what they could find from analyzing the bodies. Their husk research project had reached a dead end and apparently the Imperium had not only complete a version of their program they also had them able to do non-combat objective. While carrying boxes didn't seem like that big of a deal, by the sound of Yadrell's voice it wasn't that uncommon in his universe which meant the Tech Priest had made a mass production method of their technique.

Faith couldn't help but ask "How is it that your imperium is so advanced in certain parts and lacking in others?"

Yadrell opened the doors to the command deck and said "Well after the dark ages where humanity was cut off from itself with the warp storms and disasters that stuck it all at once. We had to rebuild as some planets had to re-invent flight. Not space flight mind your just basic get off the ground and fly into the air. We managed to relearn and rebuild a couple of things, but since the Imperium is constantly with aliens that want to kill us we are trying to ensure we survive. By the way what year is it? 42M?"

Faith scratched her head as she said "42 M?"

"Forty Second Millennium or about Year 41 027…ish give or take." Yadrell said "You tend to lose track of years in the warp."

Faith shook her head and said "This is 2183."

"So we have about… Twenty eight thousand years before the foundation of the Imperium of Man." Yadrell simply said "So we do have a little bit of an advantage in some parts."

He flicked on the star map as he let them see how much territory the Imperium of Man actually had. They started at it in awe. The few who though he was making it up didn't anymore as the map itself was extensive. It showed hidden worlds the mass relays didn't connect to and areas that had been just discovered. The Citadel was a collection of other races own territories all governed by the counsel and their respective governments. Imperial space was just Imperial space as it was all owned by humans and Citadel space was minuscule compared to it and that was if you included the planets they hadn't discovered yet.

Everyone's minds raced at the new rush of knowledge. Adam thought about the military applications as he noticed they lacked mass relays which meant they had a different FTL system. How easy it would be to launch surprise attacks like the geth had done to the Citadel. Faith thought tactics as these worlds were currently undiscovered or not even connected to the mass relay network. Cerberus could place bases on the planets and even if the Systems Alliance or the Citadel had found out about the bases they wouldn't be able to do anything simple because they wouldn't be able to reach them. They might not even have to check what minerals the planet had if the imperial ship's records went back far enough. Yadrell focused on their reactions. He wanted to find how much this affected them and what their responses. The more he could offer made him even more valuable and if worse came to worse he could vent all the air while they were in space killing everyone but him as he would try again with a different group, but with a better understanding.

Adam shook his head as he tried to look away from the map and said "What about weapons? Does this ship have an armory or something?

Yadrell turned around as he started to check the systems and said "Just give me a few… that isn't good."

He quickly flipped on the last vid recordings of the battle as the map was quickly replaced with images of the space battle. Six large human ships were firing at the massive hive ships while they kept sending thousands of Tyranid drop pods. They could make out one or two more alien looking ships as they seemed to also be firing at the massive hive ships.

Adam looked at Yadrell as he said "What is this?"

Yadrell said with a hint of bitter regret "The last recordings of the battle before this ship started to be boarded. Only a couple of minutes had passed between our two universes and our side is losing."

Adam shook his head and shouted "What do you mean?"

Yadrell pointed at one of the lead ships and said "That one is getting ready for the command to use Exterminates since it's a Tau controlled world. They hope to deny the Nids the planet and hopefully divert their fleet towards the Tau controlled world instead of Imperial owned planets."

Adam looked at the battle and said "Isn't that good for us? I mean it will stop them from appearing here or make it less dangerous at least."

"Except it's now pulling ships from space here." Yadrell grimly said "So all those hive ships will appear here in this universe and unless you have a fleet ready."

Faith shut her eyes as she said "It would be even worse than the Geth attack on the citadel. So how do we stop it?"

Yadrell turned around and smiled. Saving an entire group always bought good will and stopping an entire invasion fleet (Which he technically caused the problem to but they didn't know) would by a decent amount of favor. Besides he didn't want to be stuck having to figure out how to escape or possibly defeat the hive fleet. He took a look at the systems and found where the vehicles were as the ship was able to detect the growing section of warp appearing on the planet. It properly was where the gate from the first ritual was appearing at. In fact smaller signals of warp emergences had appeared closer to the gate than the rest of the planet.

Yadrell took a deep breath and said "Found were the anchor tying our two universes together is. Only problem is more appearances are being located there so it's safe to guess it's crawling with Nids. I did manage to find some of the vehicles the Imperial Guard hadn't gotten to deploy or repair before the Nids attempted to board the ship."

Adam took one last look at the recording of the battle and said "Was the ship deploying troops or taking them off the planet?"

Yadrell shrugged as he replied "I guess we will see soon. So you might want to come up with a plan B in case there isn't a lot left over for us to use."

* * *

Cetok looked around the abandoned Cerberus base as he kept his eyes on the horror survival guide. He didn't think much of it at first but after the third sneak attack and sudden disappearance of the alien. He had started to believe it was some robot that had been programed from some ancient horror film.

The Cerberus base itself looked like one of those old abandoned mad scientist laboratories. The turrets outside the base didn't fire as large sections of the base had been cleaved open. Some of the men had just opted to call the place empty and go somewhere else. Cetok took the first steps towards the base and checked the door. As soon as he pushed it open just wide enough to fire through the opening as something screamed inside the base.

Cetok shook his head and muttered "Guide 1 and reality 0." Everyone looked at him strangely "I said someone check those turrets and see if they can't be fixed! Last thing we need is to be caught outside without any defenses!"

They quickly raced to fix the turrets as Cetok grabbed one of the broken pipes and shoved it into the doorway. He made sure to stand far away from the door as he could as he used the pipe to force the door open. After nothing happened he looked inside of the hallway and found a small monster in the hallway. It didn't look like the larger one with the tentacle face that kept ambushing them as it seemed more like a small hound… except it had scales along with small scythes attached to it's body. He could see the similarities between it and the bigger one.

Cetok took a deep breath as he didn't dare entire the building until he had a large group of people with him. He'd rather stay outside with everyone ready to shoot than stuck inside the small cramp base. So while waiting Cetok looked over the guide again trying to pick out which bits were useful and which would only make him more paranoid than he already was. Of course he didn't know if it counted as paranoia since something was actually trying to kill him. Another one of his soldiers screamed as gun fire went off in the distance as if confirming his fears.

Cetok shouted "I said stick together in groups of four! Who let that idiot wonder off by himself?"

One of the other soldiers shouted back "He went into the base since he saw one of the human lavatories."

Cetok shouted in fury "Keep together even if you have to use the bloody toilet! It properly hid in there waiting for one of you fools to use it!"

He took a deep breath as he tried to calm down. How it got inside the base or more importantly how it managed to escape so quickly was a real problem. He quickly decided to check the guide and even looked at the parts that didn't apply in the real world since apparently this monster though didn't care for physics either. After a few minutes and the turrets back on and under their control Cetok felt he was ready as he could be at the moment.

He quickly turned on his com system and said "Get the YMIR mechs down here right away! Hopefully we will have a few Cerberus operatives to bring back up."

Cetok knew he was lying about the Cerberus operatives possibly being alive. He didn't need the guide to tell him that they were properly the first people to die. Still he wanted those massive mechs in case they were being hunted by more than one of those monsters.

He looked inside of the base and turned on the flashlight as most of his men walked inside leaving only eight of them outside to guard the turrets. Cetok found the dead Cerberus operatives torn apart by the claws of the monsters as a couple of them had gaping holes in the back of their heads as they were also covered in what he hoped was one of the monster's saliva. Each step inside the base made their fear grow as they found one of the research rooms and found out the problem.

Inside the lab were more spikes similar to the ones the geth had used. Nothing inside the place showed vats used to grow things or possibly cybernetics. In fact nothing in the place explained the horrible monsters that lurked outside. Cetok looked around in hope of finding something as he went over to one of the counsels trying to find out what had happened.

The first log played "Day 87. Husks are able to be reproduced yet un-able to control them. Killed batch 47."

"Next." Cetok said as he played a different log

The log continued "Day 108. The Elusive Man has ordered base lockdown. Security has been increased as defenses are being improved in case of attack from System Alliance. Project still reporting no success."

Cetok flipped to the next log

The log flicked "Day 121 yet records from the other bases show 128 and 109? Cabin fever has gotten to some of the workers as they claim seeing "monsters" outside. Vid recordings show nothing."

Cetok began to sweat as he played the next log

The log continued to flicker "Day 132. I saw one of the fucking things in the husk lab. It was tearing them apart and nearly broke containment. We quickly used torched all lab samples and the monster inside the containment unit. Vids do not show creature entering the area."

Cetok quickly pressed the next log as his fear grew

The long was clear "Day 145. Dear god in heaven and glory I have sinned almighty father so please save me so I can repent! There are thousands of the fucking monsters outside as the turrets are doing their best…." Static played for a few second "I finally managed to restore power. I leave this log for anyone to find. Blast the planet from orbit! I repeat blast it from orbit! Everyone's dead as the door is barely holding as their breaking through! Leave now and…"

The log ended as Cetok couldn't help but shiver as he couldn't help but imagine the man's final moments. It also told him there was _thousands _of the monsters outside lurking somewhere. Cetok turned around and saw one of the monsters as it leaped at him. Everyone opened fire as the monster flew at him as Cetok screamed as he shoved his riffle at the monster only for it to go through him.

The monster went through the counsel as Cetok's shields flared up as some of the bullets from his men hit him. Cetok turned around and saw the monster run through the wall as if it wasn't there. He quickly turned on the video from the room and saw his men shooting at nothing.

Cetok couldn't help but shiver as he said "Their playing with our fucking minds." He quickly shouted "Everyone link you systems with a camera and use it. Apparently they can make us see things."

Everyone nodded as they did what they had been told as Cetok couldn't help but wonder if that was how the monster kept popping out of nowhere. How close had it been before it decided to show itself kill one of their comrades before making them think it had disappeared again.

Cetok left the room as he continued to walk down the hallway as he saw a swarm of smaller monsters running through the walls as the camera's showed nothing again. Near the center of the base he could see where the survivors had tried to make one last stand against the monsters as dozens of bodies from both sides filled the room. The doorways were splattered in blood as sections of the walls had been broken as dozens of smaller corpses filled the entrances including two larger monsters that stood on two feet with massive bone swords.

Cetok pulled out his riffle for a moment as he saw two of the large tentacle monsters staring at them, but stopped as his camera showed it wasn't really there. Cetok shook his head as he tried to ignore them as he inspected the bodies. Small holes had formed in some of the soldiers bodies as some seemed to have been killed by some sort of acid. Most of the bodies had been torn apart in close combat as a few corpses of smaller snake like creatures with large teeth had torn apart their legs before being killed.

Cetok looked at the two monster that continued to stare at them and said "Their not really there." He stuck his riffle into one of their heads and said "See just a figment of my" The monster screeched as Cetok's riffle suddenly became heavy "Son of a bitch!" Cetok shouted as the creature slashed his chest.

The shields were worthless as a chunk of his armor hit the ground as he could suddenly feel the monster's breath as bits of salvia hit his shields protecting his face. Cetok pulled the riffle's trigger as a round went of in the creature's brains as he continued to pull the trigger until it ran out of ammo and a gaping hole was left in the back of the monster's head as it's brains coated the ceiling above them.

Everyone fired at the other monster as the bullets went through it as the monster ran away from them and hid somewhere. Cetok tried to pull his riffle out of the creature's skull only for it to be stuck as apparently the two seemed to be stuck together unless he had a surgical saw to remove the two.

After his men managed to push the corpse off him Cetok shouted "What the hell just happened!"

One of the soldier said in a panic "It wasn't there."

"What do you mean it wasn't there?" Cetok screamed at the top of his voice "The dam thing nearly killed me!"

The soldier quickly shouted back "It didn't register on the sensors until you blasted it's brains out. Heck the recordings have it suddenly appearing out of nowhere."

Cetok checked his own logs ready to shout again only to see the soldier was right. He saw his video as he stuck the riffle out saying it wasn't there only for the next few seconds to have the monster cover up his entire camera as it tried to eat him. Cetok look around in fear not wanting to see if any more creatures were there even if they didn't show on his camera. He looked down at the monster's body and his riffle as a sudden thought just occurred to him.

Without bothering to think it through Cetok shouted "Grab the corpse and take it with us!" He quickly grabbed two of the machine guns left on the floor. "Get a spare gun or a pipe and stuck it in any of the monsters if they don't show up on your camera! We are getting off the ground and staying in the air unless we need to check another place out!"

The soldier shouted back "Why bring the corpse with us?"

"Because it has my riffle and its worth more than your sorry butt. Now move it!" Cetok shouted.

The truth was he wanted to bring the corpse to show the monster was actually real. He also began to fear if he had to fight another one and wanted to know how to counter it's ghost like abilities. Last thing he needed was running into more magic space monsters. Soon they grabbed the corpse and started to drag it outside as gun fire had started to kick up.

The entire area had changed as now a large battlefield was outside as thousands of monsters ran across the area. People were fighting as they charged the fortifications as the sky seemed to be blacked out by hundreds of falling objects. One of them hit the top of the base and a dozen large monsters with bone like swords jumped down. Cetok moved back into the base as they butchered everyone outside. Then something heavy landed outside the base as flames carpeted the area outside of the monsters screamed in agony.

The entire place seemed to shift back to reality as the burnt corpses were still there as a large yellow mech stood outside. Cetok took the first few steps as the mech turned towards him and shouted something in a language the translator had never run across. It took a few seconds before the alien switched to a dialect the translator knew.

The mech shouted "Are you alright?"

Cetok nodded in disbelief as the shuttle pilots started to shout on his com if the yellow mech was friendly or not.

Cetok shouted in his com system "The yellow is friendly."

The mech shook it's head as it said "I'm sorry. Could you repeat what you said."

Cetok looked up at it and slowly said "You're not going to try to kill us are you?"

What sounded like a sigh came from the mech before it said "I'm am sorry warriors, but apparently this unit does not have your languages on the system. If you can understand me can you give me a thumbs up?" Cetok held out his thumb in confusion "Thank small miracles. Now do you know what is happening?"

Cetok stuck his thumb down as he knew whatever the hell was going on had just become a lot more complicated.

* * *

Faith looked around armory in disbelief as Adam couldn't help but bang his head against the wall as he saw the Imperium of Man's "vehicles" that stood ready. The ship was advanced as it was huge even though it was a "small transport ship" as everything about the Imperium seemed highly advanced, but this was some sort of poor joke. Most of the vehicles looked like they belonged in an old WWII museum instead of right out on the battlefield.

Adam slowly muttered "Please don't tell me this is it."

Yadrell looked at the vehicles and said "Alright so only a few Leman Russ Tanks and Chimera along with a Salamander variant or two left. I don't see much use for a Basilisk right now. Wish there was a Baneblade though."

Faith could help but ask "These are your common ground forces?"

Yadrell looked at them in confusion and said "Well the more common vehicles. Still they should be of use."

Adam groaned and slowly said "How can the entire force of your so called Imperium succeed with this junk?"

Yadrell closed his eyes and said "So I take it you have better?"

Faith tried to smile as she said "Considering the vast fleet your Imperium had it would make sense if they focused more on their ships instead of their ground forces."

Yadrell nodded as he replied "And most of the good stuff is left with the Space Marines. The Imperial Guard uses numbers to get the job done most of the time. Though I'm sure a more experienced Guardsman could give you a better idea. Still the flamers and meltas should be good."

Adam turned his head and said "Flamers and Meltas?"

Yadrell smiled as he replied "Turrets that shoot fire and weapons stronger than the laser based versions built to cut through heavy fortifications. Of course a few of them have larger laser weapons attached to them."

Adam looked at the vehicles in a mixed blessing. Good weapons, but lousy armor or at least in his opinion. Still it shouldn't be too hard trying to figure out how to drive them and there were enough of vehicles to help carry most of the other base's remaining equipment and people.

Adam shook his head and said "Let's hope were lucky. We need to get to the other base to pick up the Thresher Maw Generator."

Faith looked at Adam in fear as she said "You can't be serious!"

Yadrell shouted "So is it some sort of bomb?"

Adam chuckled as he grimly said "I wish. This device was made to help deal with Thresher Maws only instead to attract them. I figure one of those big monsters might be able to break that gate or at least slow down your space monsters. We will also have to borrow the M-44 Hammerhead just to be safe."

Faith made a small prayer as Yadrell tried to figure out what a Thresher Maw actually was. Adam walked over to one of the vehicles that reminded him of a Mako and climbed aboard. One of the jokes among Cerberus was that they would never have to rely on a Mako ever again and now their lives seemed to depend on their alternate's counterparts it seemed. Adam just hoped these would prove to be more reliable, but somehow he highly doubt that since they seemed much older than the standard models they had.

* * *

The ground seemed bumpy expect Adam knew it was mostly because of the lack of Mass Effect technology. It had taken a few of their people time to figure out how to drive one, but he also knew that while they had learned how to drive these new vehicles it did not mean they knew how to drive well. Surprisingly they were making good time to the last base as everyone else was loading up everything they had into the space ship parked right outside their base. Adam kept an eye on Yadrell as he had to make sure Yadrell survived the mission as he properly was the only one who could fly the ship or at least ensure they could.

Adam couldn't help but stare at Yadrell's staff. It looked normal for the most part as it looked like it belonged at a comic convention, but it was creepy to look at. He couldn't tell why, but somehow it seemed to generate a feeling of unnatural wrongness if that was even a word. He held that staff tighter than the laser weapon he carried on his back which was more advanced than their guns.

Then there was the matter of Yadrell's armor. He had insisted on wearing the Storm Trooper version since he was going into a hot zone. Adam had tried to dissuade him and use one of their spare Cerberus suits simply because they had kinetic barriers, but Yadrell refused as he considered the Storm Trooper model more effective as he claimed to use it to help show a friendly face (or armor) in case anyone from his side fell through to their universe. He only finally agreed to wear one just as long as they used the spare parts from one of the other suits and fixed it onto the Cerberus armor. Adam couldn't help but feel it was a waste of time as it weakened the Kinetic Barriers, but it at least gave Yadrell some protection.

The vehicle lurched as the driver shouted "You're not going to believe this captain, but I just ran over an ork."

Yadrell looked up and shouted "Big hulking green thing?"

The driver shouted "Yes… Was that bad?"

Yadrell shook his head and slowly said "So I take it you don't have orks in this universe." Adam nodded "Good. Get the ship and any equipment we take from this planet and have it cleansed or something. Last thing we need is to introduce orks to this galaxy."

Adam opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped. Orks seemed like something he should have asked about as they could be a possible threat. Then again it didn't seem to bother him or even surprise him that orks could actually exist in their universe after finding out the Tyranid's had ships that were bigger than Sovereign. Besides the threats above them in space (the Batarian and the space combat from the other universe possibly leaking over) were a bigger concern at the moment.

The driver shouted out loud "Fuck! Big fucking monster ahead of us!"

Yadrell raced to the ladder only for Adam to beat Yadrell as he climbed up first. Finally being able to see outside the cramp vehicle he could see the chaos outside. Multiple battles were being fought as they kept fading in and out of existence as hundreds of the Tyranids were assaulting what looked like were human defenders. In front of their vehicle a large Tyranid creature that looked different than the Lictor aimed what looked like a gun at their vehicle. The round struck the side of it as acid started to sizzle across the hull similar to a Thresher Maw as a few bits quickly started to tear through his armor with ease once it got past his shields. Adam pulled the trigger as the attack temporally blinded him. Once his sight came back he saw that the weapon had torn through the monsters including one bigger than the vehicle itself.

Faith shouted in the com system "What the heck was that attack?"

Adam tried to blink away the flashes left in his vision and said "Which one?"

Faith shouted with a hint of joy and confusion "Both. The acid would have torn apart one of our vehicles with ease yet it didn't affect yours too much and the weapon on that vehicle could possibly be even deadlier than lasers to us!"

Yadrell shouted from down below "It cuts through Adamantium and ceramite also. The ship is mostly Adamantium I think and this could be a combination of both, but honestly you should ask a tech priest for that."

Adam shouted back down "You get up here and take control of the turret for now."

As Adam climbed down as another few rounds hit the hull he quickly began to feel outclassed. The vehicle looked like it belonged in a museum, but it was obvious that it was more advanced after seeing it in battle. The turret continued to go off as Adam went over parts of the vehicle with his omni tool as it did reveal trace amounts of Adamantium. How they managed to produce enough to cover their ships properly was one of the reasons why the Imperium owned so much territory.

Something screeched outside as claws tore through the armor with ease. Adam quickly switched to his riffle and opened fire as the monster nearly reached him before it died. Sweat dripped from his head as the humanoid monster laid dead at his feet. It had four arms with lots of teeth and an armored hide as it tore through the armor with ease!

Adam shouted "What the hell was that thing!"

Yadrell shouted back "Genestealer. Nasty Nid creature with sharp claws. Hybrid if it has human features."

Adam looked up at the ladder and shouted "It got inside just after I shot it!"

Yadrell laughed as he said "Then aim through the hole and shoot any others that try to get in. Their armor is kind of weak against hard round like your guns."

Adam couldn't help but say like an idiot "Does this happen much?"

"Of course not!" Yadrell shouted back "Most of the time they have friends who flood through the hole and kill everyone! Just keep the guns ready."

Adam couldn't help but shiver. They had better guns and armor and the enemy could easily tear though it. Adam looked outside the hole and saw a dozen small creatures aiming guns at him. He quickly moved out of the way as something hit the wall behind him. A bunch of small worm like creatures withered around on the ground until they died as his kinetic barriers had blocked a few of them. Adam quickly opened fire at the creatures outside as they ran for cover. Adam couldn't help but chuckled as he felt a small bit of pride. These creatures had never ran into Kinetic barriers before so they held a small advantage as long as they didn't engage in close combat.

Soon the vehicle began to slow down as Adam shouted "Why are we slowing down?"

The driver shouted back "Because we are nearly there and a couple of YMIR mechs are in the way!" Gun fire stuck the side of the vehicle as two explosion shook the vehicle a little. "Fucking A! They didn't even scratch it!"

Yadrell shouted from above "Shoot or hold fire?"

Adam looked outside the hole and saw the Batarians next to it. Apparently their shuttles had finally landed and they weren't alone. More Tyranids were attacking as they tried to over run their position only to be currently held off by the YMIR mechs. Adam shook his head in regret.

Adam shouted "Get rid of the mechs. Batarians have control of them. Know what one looks like?"

Yadrell shouted back with a hint of hesitation "Can't I just shoot at anything that doesn't look human?"

Adam smiled as he quickly shouted back "Yes!"

The weapon attached to the vechile fired as this time Adam kept his eyes shut as the flash of light went. Adam opened his eyes up again as the YMIR mechs were now a pile of slag metal as even their shields were helpless against the strange weapon. Adam couldn't help but laugh in joy as the vehicle came closer to the base only for something loud to screech.

The driver shouted "Shit!"

Half of the vehicle was sliced in half as the back section of the vehicle bounced away as a massive Tyranid monster stood taller than the vehicle itself. Similar to the one with the acid cannon this creature had four bone blades as it hacked apart the remains and started to change it's attention towards them. Adam threw a grenade at it's face as the explosion barely affected it.

Yadrell screamed at the top of his voice as he jumped out of the turret "Run dam it! Frakking run from it!"

Adam jumped out of the hole in the vehicle as the creature howled. Some sort of biotic attack struck the inside of the vehicle tearing it apart. Yadrell turned around and screamed in rage as Adam's senor's went wild as some sort of energy attack tore through one of the creature's arms. The other vehicles quickly opened fire on it as the other smaller monsters moved around to attack the vehicles.

Adam moved over to Yadrell as he was breathing heavily as the attack seemed to take a bit out of him. Adam helped pick Yadrell up as he ran towards the base. The gun fire seemed to have some effect against the massive monster as the smaller creatures seemed to become disorganized after it fell, before another one appeared.

Adam shouted in frustration "What are those things!"

Yadrell took a deep breath and said "Hive Tyrants. Though I was hoping they would get rid of the Carnifex first."

"The what?" Adam said in confusion.

Yadrell pointed to their right as a monster the size of a small building started to charge towards them. The few guns similar to the one that tore apart the YMIR mech didn't seem to affect it much as it's talons tore through a section of the base as it ignored the building as it came towards them in the distance.

Yadrell said with a grim smile "That thing."


	4. Chapter 4

Warp effect chapter 4

**Deadly Risks**

_Auther notes_

___I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game  
Workshop. _

___I do appreciate the comments and the Warhammer 40k and Mass effect Lore. There is a lot of differences between the two and also a lot of lore for each of them.(though a lot more for each subject/group for 40k) To give a quick summery of this chapter. Cerberus prepares to leave the planet. Deals are made. Slaughter happens as I dark plan is formed dooming the fate of one or possible both worlds involved in the shifting realities. _

Yadrell tried to move forward as he felt his strength returning. The last attack he had used just took him by surprise as the amount of strain that had come forth due to the tyranid presence and the strength of the veil between the warp and reality in the new universe. Adam dragged him closer to the bunker as the carnifex barreled towards them. The ground started to shake from its massive weight. Adam grunted as he dropped Yadrell and pulled out a large weapon he had strapped to his back and took aim at the beast. The round stuck the side of the carnifex's face as it didn't turn away like a normal creature would.

Adam quickly shouted "Hope you forgive me!"

A light started to form around Adam as an eruption of energy erupted against the ground sending Yadrell away as a similar row of succession of eruptions carried him forth as Adam rushed to the side and managed to avoid the carnifex by moving into its newly formed blind spot as it just barely missed them.

Yadrell's limbs ached but the shields and armor took the blunt of the blow. He couldn't help but look at Adam in confusion as he tried to figure out what had just happened. Yadrell's own gifts would have informed him if Adam had any gifts of the warp or if he was a psyker.

Yadrell said with confusion in his voice "What was that?"

Adam helped Yadrell back up and said "L5n Biotic implant used for Vanguards."

Yadrell shook his head as he said "Biotic? That was what that was?"

Adam nodded as he checked the weapon again and said "Well there goes our heavy weapon. I was just hoping it would give more than a black eye to that monster." he tossed the weapon aside. "Still we are closer to the bunker now."

The carnifex roared as the remaining vehicle focused their attacks on it. While rippers come rushing towards them. Small snake like creatures with claws covered the ground as razor sharp teeth filled every inch of their mouth flooded towards them. The ground quickly disappeared underneath the mass of killing flesh that was rushing towards them.

Adam sent forth another shockwave as it sent some of the smaller creatures flying. As Yadrell held out the staff and sent blue flames scorching down at mass of Nids. Yadrell tried to focus as the swarm continued to move towards them without any regard for their losses as Adam tossed all of his grenades into the swarm hoping to make some impact. Yadrell took a deep breath and turned around and fired a blast into the base tearing a hole into it.

Yadrell shouted at the top of his voice "Run!"

Adam bolted as he jumped into the hole as he turned around and saw Yadrell running at him as reality seemed to shift. He could see a large battle as the Tyranid monsters leaped down from building tearing apart a group of humans. When it shifted back to normal a wall now stood in front of the hole made inside the base.

Adam cursed out loud "Shit!

Adam fired a few rounds in vain as the wall didn't seem to budge as it had blocked off the entrance. A few Cerberus guards rushed forth and stopped when they saw Adam's Cerberus armor. The slowly lowered their guns, but still keep them pointed at him. Fear had kept them alive, but it also made them paranoid.

Adam could understand the feeling as he calmly said "Where are the survivors? We are prepping for EVAC! Get your people loaded and ready to leave!"

One of them shook his head and shouted "There are monsters outside!"

Adam pointed at the wall and shouted "And more are coming. If we don't get everyone out of here soon the whole planet will be swarming with them and that is properly going to happen if we succeed in blowing up their hive."

The soldier couldn't help but shiver as he said "If we succeed? What happens if we fail?"

Adam took a deep breath and said "Then they won't be on just this planet. They will spread across the galaxy worse than the Rachni."

Everyone went silent as the knowledge terrified them just as it had Adam. Before they thought this was a unique occurrence only to find out that it would be repeated on a galactic scale was horrifying. They mentioned Adam to follow them as none of them spoke trying to come to terms with the knowledge they had just learned.

Adam saw the looks of the survivors he had passed by. Each one terrified wearing armor as they all held guns. Anyone not holding a gun was either asleep in the hallway or dead. Even then no one dared to stay in a group less than three people. Adam couldn't help but notice a few of them held crude swords and axes made from the Tyranid weapons in an attempt to defend themselves if the aliens got close. In fact a few more heavily armored corpses stood inside as a few improvised weapons were stuck in them. Adam couldn't help but shiver as there were no bullet holes in the creature as the walls around it was covered in them.

Adam tried to make a conversation and said "How many people are left?"

The first soldier shrugged as he said "Just a few. We had a full team at first until The Illusive Man's extra soldiers came in. We all laughed saying it was another one of T.I.M's plans. T.I.M as in The Illusive Man." He laughed at his poor joke.

Adam nodded and replied "Nice nickname."

"Thanks" replied the soldier before he continued "Days went weird at some point as we started seeing things. So the egg heads switched to working the weapons instead of the initial project. There were a few complaints until one of the monsters broke in killing an entire squad."

Fear filled his voice as he went on "First it was one. Then another one came sneaking past our defenses striking deeper. Then another and another just like the first one until a dozen and then the army outside. Hell half of the time there not really there. It's one of their tricks to mess with your mind. Just like tossing the limbs of their latest meal at your front door."

Adam tried to smile as he said "Well we have a heavily armored ship and a secure place to load everyone up before it takes flight."

The soldier shook his head and said "No place is safe from them."

"Stand straight and present corporal!" Shouted a soldier that just entered into the hallway "Last thing we need to do is fall apart just before we win this thing." The man quickly stood to a halt and saluted "Captain Charles reporting for duty!"

Adam stared at the man in confusion as he could tell something was off. The others wore Cerberus uniforms yet Charles had modified his suit as pieces of Tyranid carapace strapped onto it making it have a more like a poorly designed suit of armor. Four different Tyranid claws were tied to his side as the man simply looked unhinged even though the armor covered his entire face expect for his eyes. The others had let fear make them fall apart, but for Captain Charles it simply made his mind fall apart instead.

Adam cleared his throat and said "I need to get everyone ready to leave and check on the status of the M-44 Hammerhead and the Thresher Maw Generator."

Charles shook his head and shouted "The M-44 Hammerhead is currently inoperable at the moment Sir! Took a shot from a screamer Sir!"

"Screamer?" Adam couldn't help but ask in fear.

Charles shouted again "Alien code Screamer is a mass size monster! Called due to the acid cannon attached to it as when fired sounds like something screaming. Took out commander Mattason, Eric, Henderson, and most of the commanding staff! Finally killed it with a high yield charge shoved straight down it's gullet!"

The soldier beside Adam nodded as he said "Charles received battlefield promotion to captain since he all of the others captains died and Charles ran screaming towards it and shoved the explosives down it's throat when it tried to eat him."

Adam slowly nodded as Charles seemed to twitch. Now it was properly safe to say the man had indeed went crazy as the only thing keeping him together was a strict follow of protocol and survival. Adam couldn't help but begin to wonder if Yadrell was actually safer outside then here with him.

Charles shouted "The T.M.G is ready for deployment as past trial has been confirmed. Managed to strike a large section of the horde with minim causalities Sir!"

"So you have a means of transportation ready?" Adam said with a hint of hope.

Charles nodded and shouted "The M-44 Hammerhead was used for previous test until larger variants appeared Sir! Two A-61 Mantis had managed to be secured from enemy forces before the siege started Sir!"

The soldier slowly whispered "He commanded two biotic adepts to throw him at one of the vessel."

Charles shouted "Type 4 Bone Blade and Mark 3 Hand Scythe proved effective at boarding action! Blade managed to piece the cockpit and killing the pilot as well as creating an opening for me to get into the pilot seat Sir!"

Adam took a deep breath and said "And it's status?"

Charles cheered up and said "First one took some damage, but both are now fully operational now Sir! Should I get the men to prepare it along with the T.M.G?"

"Yes. Right away" Adam said a bit faster than he should have "I will check on the scientist and the equipment that needs to be carried away."

Charles ran down the hallway ready to complete the task as soon as possible. He shouted at anyone who was slacking off. Adam couldn't help but wonder what had happen to him.

The soldier slowly said "Charles left during the mission with the Hammerhead as it ended badly. Only three days had went by at the base, but over three months had passed for him as he came back with two other men who are now dead. They left the base with twenty eight people along with four Makos. Charles came back on foot."

Adam didn't bother asking how someone managed to survive a month without food or water much less three months as he was sure the soldier was exaggerating. Of course if he wasn't Adam didn't want to know how Charles managed to survive.

Adam continued down the hallway until they came to a fortified position as Adam entered the room. Only four people were working in the lab as the rest held guns as they scanned the area ready for the enemy's next attack. The few scratches on the inside of the walls had showed that at least one of the Tyranid managed to make it inside.

The scientist were removing the carapace and weapons for a dead Tyranid and placing it in a pile select bins. When the body was stripped they dumped the body into a containment room and torched the remains. Two of them quickly began cleaning the parts and removing the remaining flesh and blood from it. Adam cleared his throat getting their attention.

The first scientist saluted and said with joy "New Cerberus guy! Please tell me you're getting us out of this hell hole!"

Adam nodded and saying "We need you to get your equipment and research ready"

The scientist shouted "Grab the bags were finally leaving!" She smiled at Adam and quickly said "We have been ready to incase we were forced to abandon the base."

Adam nodded as he went on the radio and said "Get the vehicles ready to start taking on passengers."

* * *

Yadrell took a few deep breaths as he set up the vox caster which was a communication system used to contact people far away which he had taken from the imperial guardsmen. They hadn't opened fire on him until they saw the staff, but by then it was too late as Yadrell had killed them all. Yadrell flipped on the system as he focused on the com signals. To no avail until one of the soldiers coughed.

Yadrell sighed as he slowly said "Note to self. Shoot them in the head just to be safe." He fired a few round into the other soldiers leaving the wounded one alive. "But I should be grateful one of them survived… Now where did I put my knife?"

The imperial guardsman coughed up blood as he said "For the Imperium."

Yadrell kicked the frag grenade out of the guardsman's hand and shouted "You really didn't think that old trick from the vids would work?"

The guardsman tried to shout "The Imperium will stop you."

Yadrell laughed as he pulled out his knife saying "I don't give a dam about them anymore. Hell your Imperium can win the fight for all I care. The only problem is that I don't want them with me in this new universe." Yadrell plunged the knife into the guardsman throat and started to hack apart his body. "You know I actually think I will miss some of these little rituals, but as the Tau say "For the Greater Good" of course."

Yadrell pulled out the man's intestines and tossed them aside as he started to infuse the body with energy from the warp. The body twisted as Yadrell lifted the body and tossed it onto the vox caster. His face started to scream as it melded with the metal as his arms hung in the air as wires tore through the flesh. In just a few seconds the machine had started to work as Yadrell tried to refocus the frequency.

"And still not enough power" Yadrell mumbled to himself "Then again I did rush the method and I'm trying to tap into another galaxy instead of a couple extra miles." Yadrell looked back at the battlefield as he saw the Nids attacking a group of Tau fire warriors "Though the Nids could also properly be affecting the call. I just need a big enough source to make the call… Just a few cultist or a few bursts of chaos."

Yadrell smiled as he saw a few batarians walking around the battlefield as they dashed from cover to cover. He pulled out his las long and took aim at one of them as he watched them scramble across the battlefield. It was time to test his weapon against this universe's armor and see why laser weapons had fascinated the Cerberus group. He stopped as one of the Tau Crises suits landed near them and took out a small group of Nids. Yadrell kept his sight focused on the group as he waited for the mech to leave.

* * *

Cetok held his riffle as he moved to the next piece of cover. He had no idea what was going on anymore. The alien had been friendly and offered to asset them. He certainly had been useful clearing up the alien monsters apparently called Tyranids as they managed to reach the second Cerberus base. Then something went wrong as more of the monsters appeared as the Cerberus goons sealed the base shut before they could get in. Cetok ducked as a few worm like creatures stuck his shields. He quickly stomped on them when they hit the ground as he had seen how quickly they tore through flesh.

The alien shouted "We mustn't let any more of the chaos forces to come!"

Cetok grunted as he wished he could ask the alien some questions. Where did they come from? What the hell was happening which he already knew the alien didn't know, but it would have been nice to at least shout it at him. Besides more of them were appearing along with the Tyranid monsters. The ground shook as one of the larger ones came through with a cannon attached to its body.

The alien cursed in its native language and shouted "I shall draw the beast's attention away! I wish you luck warriors!"

The mech's jump jet activated as it dogged an acidic round from the weapons. The massive alien monster followed it trying to shoot it down as Cetok waited for them to leave before he moved on. He was trying to get back to the front of the Cerberus base to see if any of the shuttles or it's equipment had survived as he held onto the information they had managed to steal from the Cerberus base. They hadn't been able to take all of it, but they managed to steal a good portion of it before they were forced to retreat as more of the Tyranids started to overrun the base.

A shot went off as the soldier next to Cetok fell to the ground with hole through his head as something had caused it to explode. Cetok ducked behind cover as another round stuck one of the soldiers this time at the neck. There was little blood as the shot had also cauterized the wound, but it looked as if an explosive round had hit him instead. The shields didn't activate either or if they did they were completely helpless against this weapon.

Cetok looked up and quickly ducked as a red flash just stuck his piece of cover. Some sniper was firing lasers at them! A part of him felt like saying it was impossible, but that part also tried to continue to deny the existence of the Tyranids and they provided to be very much alive and very real despite how much he wished they didn't exist.

Cetok shouted "Get cover and take the sniper's position! Watch out for the rounds! They got Beltik and Felic!"

Another round stuck his position as Cetok ran to the next piece of cover and managed to get a sight of their sniper. He was wearing black armor, but not like their armor. The sniper's suit was more like an armored suit than theirs. There were a few patches of yellow on it, but something about the sniper was wrong as Cetok could just feel it.

The feeling quickly grew when the sniper opened his hand as a barrage of energy blasts as his suit's sensors went wild from the energy coming from the attacks. Cetok ducked behind cover as the attack tore through the pieces of the buildings. He quickly took a few deep breaths as he was surprised that none of the attacks had hit him.

He quickly turned around and shouted "Is that the best you got!"

A few laser bolts stuck his position as Cetok ran to a different piece of cover as a group of human rushed towards them from his left. They didn't wear any armor expect for black robes as they had strange symbols burned into their flesh. Cetok first thought they were members of Cerberus then went against it. Cerberus wasn't that stupid or they would have at least given them armor.

One of the black robed members shouted "Kill the xeno in the name of the dark gods!"

The black robed human laughed as he rushed head long without trying to hid behind cover as their machine gun rounds tore through his body with ease. The other nut jobs rushed in head long as they also fired the laser weapons blindly, but then again the shots ignored their armor so even a stray bullet would be deadly.

Cetok shouted "Get a kill box ready!"

Within seconds his team managed to get into position as they fired killing most of the cultist forcing the others to hide. Cetok looked back at the sniper's position only to find he had disappeared. The figure was running towards the nut jobs position. Cetok fired a few rounds only for the sniper's shields to appear blocking one of the shots that barley nicked him.

The sniper shouted "Where are the reinforcement worms!"

One of the nut jobs shouted "The ritual went awry. The entire city disappeared."

The sniper said with a hint of joy in his voice "So you are all alone?"

The nut job shouted "We can still serve you in killing the xenos!"

The sniper chuckled as he said "And you shall."

Screaming came from their position as one of the nut jobs ran towards them. His body was expanding as his limbs started to twist in unnatural shapes. They opened fire only for the body to continue expanding and mutating into some fleshy monster. Soon it towered over them as massive claws formed as a massive of tentacles appeared on its back with pointed spikes at the end. The face no longer looked human as it was a mass of flesh as a dozen of sharp teeth filled the now alien head.

Behind the wall two more appeared as the rest of the cultist tried to open fire as the snipe slaughtered them all. The monsters tore through their blockades and started using their claws to tear through their armor. One of them breathed flames melting the rocks along with one of the batarians. Cetok switched his riffle to full auto and held the switch at one of the monster's heads as he just ran out of ammo before it fell.

Cetok ran to where the sniper had been hiding as he tried to get to a higher position as he hoped the monster would have a harder time climbing. He took a moment to look back as he saw the rest of his men having managed to kill the monsters by using up their grenades only for the sniper to get close. He swung the staff through one of their bodies as blue flames burst forth killing two more of his men. They tried to open fire on him only for the sniper to use the fallen as shields as he rushed their position.

The sniper laughed as he shouted "Let me hear your screams xeno!"

Cetok ran faster as the strange sniper seemed to fill him with fear. His men ran panicked as they no longer bothered firing as they tried to flee. Cetok got up to the sniper's position and held still as he saw a dozen humans slaughtered. Each of them was wearing different armor than the cultist as they also held strange weapons in their hands.

Cetok also saw a large alien with tentacles coming out of its face devouring one of the soldier's heads. Cetok tried to open fire only for it barely dent the alien's carapace as the Tyranid lunged at him. Cetok threw his gun at the creatures face as he ducked aside and threw a grenade at the ground. His shields took the blunt of the blast buying him enough time to roll over as the creature landed beside him. Without even thinking Cetok grabbed something beside him and swing it as the creature's tendrils grabbed his head. His head fell back as the creature screamed as a mass of tendrils fell on him. Without even thinking he continued to swing wildly as one of his attacks managed to slice through its neck killing the monster as it fell on him.

Cetok was about to push the body off him until he saw the sniper walking up and held still. The sniper shook his head as he dragged one of the batarians up with him. The sniper looked at Cetok for a few seconds as he felt his own heart beating in his head wildly as he knew he was about to die.

The sniper chuckled as he said "Well at least he managed to kill the Lictor before it got him."

Cetok froze for a moment as he could feel the creature's drool on his face as he noticed a couple of tendrils obscuring parts of his vision. It looked as if the creature had just killed him. Cetok didn't dare moving now as it was the only thing keeping him alive. The sniper pulled out a knife and started to get to work on the batarian as Cetok realized he was still alive.

Within seconds the knife went through the batarian's neck slicing it open as the Sniper tossed out everything inside of the batarian's throat and to Cetok's immense horror the batarian was still alive when he should have been dead. The sniper began to hum as he took his time tossing out organs and watching his captive's agony as he made a few notes about which points caused a lot of pain. Cetok was forced to watch the cruel ritual unable to do anything unless he wanted to share the same fate.

The sights he saw made him wish he was dead. He had seen cruel acts preformed including some done that had sickened him a little that his fellow battarians had done to humans, but none of them compared to what he saw just then. When the Sniper had finished tearing apart the batarain he stuck him on the machine as it began to merge with the batarain who was trying to scream. Cetok wished he could shut his eyes as he saw metal meld with flesh as wires tore through his flesh. In the end it was an abomination against life itself as he could tell somehow the batarain was still alive, yet wishing he was dead.

The sniper stepped out into the edge and said "And now for the remaining few. Let's see how they like the side effects from this from the destruction of my staff."

A blast of energy went down as something bad happened as even through Cetok couldn't see what it was he knew it was something horrible. Within seconds screams filled the air as literal demons took to the skies as the sniper headed back to the infernal machine.

The sniper chuckled for a moment and said "Daemon gate. Didn't expect that. Well it should take care of survivors. Now let's make sure no one survives on either side."

He turned on the system as a feminine voice suddenly emerged "This is Inquisitor Natalin Colt! Ordo Malleus! By order of the Inquisition transfer me to _The Sword of Vengeance!_" A few second passed as Cetok held his breath "This is Inquisitor Natalin Colt! The temple has fallen! Commence Exterminates! I repeat the temple has fallen! Commen"

The sniper held out his hand and fired a few energy blasts at the machine destroying it. He stretched his body for a moment before he picked up the fallen weapons.

The sniper started to strap a few of them on him as he said "Time difference should buy me a few hours. Just enough time to blow the gate or at least get the ship off this planet before they properly kill everyone on the planet in my galaxy and this one. Leaving this new universe for myself."

"Traitor!" a voice shouted as a massive soldier landed near the sniper. The man was a giant as he was covered in an armored suit as he held a massive sword combined with a chain saw in his right hand and a massive pistol in his left. He screamed "You traitor! You have killed us all!"

The sniper jumped back as the sword stuck the ground causing sparks to fly. The giants jumped as his jump jet made him fly past the sniper as he fired a few rounds near him. Bullets hit the ground instead of laser bolts like Cetok had expected as the giant disappeared from his vision.

The giant shouted "I shall serve your head to the dark gods myself!"

The figure came back into Cetok's vision as he had knocked the sniper down and held his massive pistol at the sniper's head. He quickly began to chant as went appeared to be a sword forming in his hand. The pistol went off as the rounds struck the sniper's shields saving his life as he quickly plunged the swords into the giant's chest and pulling them through the giant's armor.

The giant shouted "Dam you soul Yadrell!"

The sniper laughed as he swung the energy blade saying "We are chaos. Our souls are already dammed." Cetok held his breath as the sniper touched his body as he was apparently making sure everything was still there. "Maybe I should look into more of those shields Cerberus has. Worthless against las bullets, but they did stop the bolter round from going through my head."

Cetok watched the sniper gather up the weapons before he tossed a few frag gernades destroying the giant's body. Only when the sniper left did Cetok find the strength to push the Tyranid's body off him only to see it was missing it's head. Cetok looked up and couldn't help but shiver as he saw a sharp object just barely stuck in the top of his helmet. He slowly pulled the creature's head off as he continued to shiver as what seemed to be the end of a tongue hit his visor. Cetok pulled grabbed a small patch kit from his side before he pulled the thing out. Only when he was done did he look down at what saved his life.

It looked like a sword expect it had a button at its side. Cetok lifted the weapon at swung it at the dead body only to barley chip the monster's hide. Cetok pushed the button as some unknown energy covered the blade as he tried again only to slice through the corpse with ease and part of the wall like if it was butter. He quickly let go of the button when it came out of the wall as he held it nervously before it shoved it into an empty holster.

Cetok muttered to himself "Crazy mad men, giants and demons all in one day. Either this is some wild acid trip or nightmare… or Cerberus really screwed up and opened a portal to hell and some other afterlife."

It sounded crazy out loud but he couldn't think of any other explanation as he was holding a sword that apparently defied physics as demons took to the sky. Sure the yellow suited aliens didn't seem like hell spawned demons, but then again Cerberus could have opened more than one portal. Cetok activated his radio as he hoped to find somebody as he didn't dare leave his spot and go down there after seeing real life demons taking flight to the sky.

* * *

The ground shook as Samual held his ground. The building started to crumble as something seemed to be making its way through the portal. The chaos marine laughed in triumph as a dozen space marines suddenly disappeared into thin air. One of the daemons leaped onto him ready to tear his head off as a signal came through as Samual could hear the message being sent.

The inquisitor's voice came through "This is Inquisitor Natalin Colt! The temple has fallen! Commence Exterminates! I repeat the temple has fallen! Commen"

Confusion covered the daemon's face as she muttered "He didn't."

"The emperor finds a way!" Samual shouted as he pulled his chain sword free and swung it at the daemon. It jumped back leaving a bloody gash against its possessed body. "You have lost this day!"

The daemon shouted "You fool! Yadrell is trying to kill us all! Your beloved inquisitor died last week!"

Samual fired his hotshot shouting "Not even death can stop the faithful! Even if this means my death I shall take you traitors with me!"

The Tau shouted "She is telling the truth. The inquisitor's corpse has been found!"

Samual turned around and saw the Tau dragging an injured tau along with a few other tortured survivors. Inside the room the inquisitor's body had been tortured to death. Samual tried to ignore the body and went back to his reason for the message. After all why would a chaos heretic try to kill himself? At the very least it was more likely that one people who had traveled with the inquisitor managed to escape and bring the message she had recorded beforehand.

The tau helped herd the people outside only for a chaos marine to block the doorway. His chain sword cut though two of the survivors as he laughed. Samual fired the hotshot at the chaos marine as Tau tried to take him out. The chaos marine grabbed the injured tau and jumped towards the massive gate.

The marine laughed "Just a few more sacrifices until our victory!"

The tau assisting the survivors shouted in despair as the daemon jumped behind the chaos marine. She managed to catch the injured tau before he fell into the gate way.

The daemon shouted "I'll let your ethereal live and even escape this place if you and that imperial go down to the bottom of this temple."

The chaos marine shouted "Silence wench!"

The daemon frowned and in one clean sweep she sliced the chaos marine's head off while saying "Never underestimate a woman's fury." The daemon held out a space marine's helmet "One of the imperial transponder things. Set to call for teleportation off this rock. I can set it to transport your beloved Ethural out of here in safety in exchange for going down the pit."

Samual shouted "Get ready to grab him…"

Samual stopped talking as something hit his back. He fell face first into the pit in the middle of the room as a vortex suddenly opened. As Samual fell he saw the Tau reloading his riffle.

The tau slowly said "For the Greater Good."

"Curse you black soul filthy xenos traitor!" Samual shouted as he disappeared as another daemon began to laugh.

The Tau took aim at the daemon and said "Now your turn!"

The daemon nodded as she shoved it on the Ethural's head as he suddenly disappeared as the Tau could feel the aftereffects of a sudden teleportation. The daemon smiled as the Tau held his breath as a dozen daemonites appeared behind him holding the other suvivors hostage.

The daemon pointed at the hole and simply said "Your turn or the portal gets an extra-large shot of fuel."

The Tau took a few steps forward and said "Why are you keeping the end of your word?"

The daemon simply shrugged as she said "Part of the deal for my trip. I'm not allowed to send you in at it must be done by your free will. Though shooting your own ally in the back. Nice touch."

The ground collapsed as the Tau fell into the vortex as the last thing he heard was "And the other soul. Mon a me we have a pact Eliza. Now where do you want to go?"

The daemon smiled as she said "Take me to Yaddy."

* * *

Adam shouted "Everyone in! Move quickly!"

One of the Tyranid warrior strains ran towards him as Adam tried another shockwave only for the alien to impale it's claws into the ground preventing it from being knocked back. Once the wave past by it the Tyranid used it's position to up spring forward at him ready to make the kill. Charles threw one of his weapons as the alien's head killing it before it landed on Adam.

Charles pushed the body off Adam and said "Careful Sir! They seem to be learning fast!"

Adam nodded as he said "Mind if I borrow a weapon?"

Charles handed Adam one of the bone swords before he quickly moved to help with the defense for the evacuation. Adam held the blade uneasily as he wasn't sure how he should hold into the weapon. He quickly shook his head and tied it to the weapon with a bit of spare duct tape he had found before he fired a few rounds into the advancing swarm.

Adam muttered to himself as another group of Tyranid's managed to resist the shockwave "If I survive this… No when I get back. I need to put in some training for my biotic ability."

The ground shook as Adam stared up in the sky in terror. One massive tyranid monster slowly walked towards their position. It must have been at least four stories tall as it had two massive scythes attached to it's body as it marched over to them. It was obvious that if it reached the base they would lose it in seconds.

Adam screamed at the top of his voice "People first then items! Get more vehicles ready to be loaded and have the ones loaded keep firing!"

The ground erupted near him as a massive alien screeched out loud as it stood bigger than the tanks. Smaller tyranid creatures started to flood out of the hole as Adam tried to run. The ground shook as the massive alien landed on the side of the base as heavy gun fire stuck near his position as one of the Imperial Tanks moved towards his position. Adam quickly grabbed one of the charges they had set up and threw it at the hole before it exploded causing the tunnel to collapse.

Adam quickly shouted "Get the loaded vehicles moving now!"

Two more of the creatures erupted from the ground near the imperial chimeras and started to tear them apart as the Tyranids were trying to surround them. Adam ran over to the T.M.G. and activated it early. It didn't take long for one of the Thresher Maws to appear as it started to attack some of the larger Tyranid monsters. At first it was managing to work as it killed one of the larger monsters, but there were simply to many of them as they began to overwhelm the Thresher Maw.

Charles raced back to Adam shouting "What are you doing!"

"Buying time!" Adam shouted "Get the gunships ready! We are deploying the package now!"

Adam reached to his side for another clip only to find he was empty. He quickly looked around and saw that the remaining spare clips by the supplies had also been used up. Right now there was literally more Tyranids than bullets. Adam switched to the laser pistol and stared firing a few rounds hoping to keep them away.

The base started to crumble away due to the stray shots fired from the Tyranids as it was only a matter of time before they over ran them or the Thresher Maws would come in mass from being drawn by the T.M.G. which would also kill them. Adam thought about how insane it sounded at first as the prospect of blowing up a planet simply because they couldn't defend it. Now he didn't as the Tyranids just kept coming as larger ones started to also appear.

Adam fired the last few rounds into a couple of smaller ones and tossed it aside for a moment before Charles said "Ran out of ammo for the handgun too?"

"Shit!" Adam shouted as one of the warrior version appeared over the pistol. "Cover me!"

Adam pulled out the machinegun that had a bone blade tied onto it and charged the alien. It hesitated for a moment giving Adam enough time to s shove the blade into the monster's head before he pulled it out and retrieved the laser pistol. A dozen other warriors ran at him as Adam held out the machinegun in defiance as he knew he was dead only for them to run through him.

Adam couldn't help but said "What the fuck?"

More of the Tyranids seemed to turn suddenly move through them as the Tyranids flayed their claws in vain at them only for them not to touch. A few were still able to fight, but most of them were retreating as they were unable to finish the fight. Adam couldn't help but laugh as the Tyranids left them as Charles kept looking around trying to figure out what had just happened.

Faith quickly came in on the radio "The Tyranids are being forced to retreat. Is everyone alright?"

Adam nodded as he said "Thank god for the miracle."

Faith hesitated for a moment before she said "I wouldn't say that just yet. Reports of… demons are appearing near the battlefield that appeared near the opposite side of the base. They seem to be causing some interference and are battling the Tyranids for… well a better word existence as both keep flickering in and out of reality."

"Massive alien monsters, constant war and now demons?" Adam said in disbelief "What kind of crap sack world is this other universe?"

"One buying us a few more seconds" Faith quickly said "And we need to fix this fast. We are detecting some high energy readings being directed at the planet. We need to blow the gate and escape incase this is one of those planet buster ships getting ready to fire."

Adam nodded as one of the gun ships landed near him. Adam quickly strapped himself into the pilot seat as he saw the second one land with Faith in the cockpit. Charles climbed into her cockpit as he held the T.M.G. as he barely fit inside the cockpit with Faith holding it.

"What are you doing?" Adam shouted

Faith smiled as she said "Providing support. We found Yadrell's location as he attempted to get a signal. Unfortunately it's at the edge of the battlefield and the illusive man will certainly want him alive."

Adam took a deep breath and said "One last stop till the end." He didn't fully understand what kept the Tyranid army from staying in their reality, but he had a good feeling that Yadrell had done something. "How is the gate?"

"A hot zone." Faith said with a hint of fear in her voice "Chaos. There are even more Tyranids fighting over there than here. Hopefully Yadrell has a trick he can use that he was keeping secret to us."

Adam took another deep breath as he tried to calm himself before he said "Were not retrieving him because "TIM" wants him. We are picking him up because he is our only shot at getting rid of this gate."

Faith tried to smile as she said "He is also the only one who can fly the ship right away. We are trying to translate the controls, but the energy reading in orbit isn't comforting."

Charles simply shrugged as he chipped in "A race against time then. This is good!'

"Good!" Adam couldn't help but shout in confusion as he started to get the gun ship off the ground.

Charles chuckled in joy as he happily said "It means we are almost finished. Just one hot zone pickup and we leave this forsaken rock to be blasted to bits. I don't see what the problem is."

Disappointment filled Faith's voice as she said "Except that will only take care of the ground forces. We will have an entire space battle being fought. If they fall through than this will only be the beginning. We need to blow the gate before the space battle enters our reality."

Charles went quite for a moment before he said "Suicide mission then for the ship with the bombs and TMG. Which one gets stuck with the run?"

Adam said with sorrow "The ship that manages to come out intact from the rescue mission of course. The damaged one can just be used to drive back or signal one of the other vehicles to pick up the fallen."

Charles sighed and then said "Should I turn off the TMG then Sir?"

Adam shook his head slowly saying "Don't… We properly need to keep it active to draw as many Thresher Maws as we can to the gate. Let's just hope they don't come too early."


	5. Chapter 5

Warp effect ch5

**Broken New World**

_Author note – __I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and  
Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop_.

_For those of you with the "Bolter Incident" I am sorry. The reason why I had did it was because... Number 1 - I needed a reason for shields to be introduced to Yadrell and my inner nerd just liked the image of surviving a point blank shot bolter round in the head. Number 2 - Mass effect kind of has this stuff happen a lot. I mean Zaeed took a bullet to head point blank (No shields also) while Garrus took a rocket to his head (possibly with shields, but still) and you know Shepard enough for me not to have to mention anything. Both are should have been killed, but fuck it they did it because it just looks/sounds neat. Number 3... I kind of wanted to do the joke below and see how many people would respond to it. Lots of rage and flaming without seeing what would happen next, but I had gotten few messages in response afterwards saying that it worked because the __kinetic barriers deflect small objects traveling at rapid velocities. This affords protection from bullets and other dangerous projectiles, but still allows the user to sit down without knocking away their chair or get hacked apart by an Omni blade. Not much I grant it but hopefully you won't mind a **Just as Planned **moment. (which does happen a lot in 40k)_

___As for the "Naming issue" that had come up. I well tell you what. Send me a few names towards my inbox (Human, Asari, Turian, Quarian. Mostly Mass effect, but a 40k can do) and I may pick a few I like (no copy righted names that can't be used or already used names in mass effect or 40k lore please. Just using the name for a character that is going to be in use and may not even last that long) or I will just let the "Google search - name generator" to get a few for me. Though I have said Yadrell will not be joining Shepard's crew it doesn't mean he won't run into them or cause a few changes in the roster. _

___To sum up this chapter. Yadrell leaves the planet. Stuff happens. The daemon that sent them to Mass Effect hitches a ride. Plans are set while tricks are played as we end with a few extra pieces on the board with a bit of foreshadowing that isn't that surprising for the most part. ____I am willing to listen to any 40k vs Mass Effect differences in techonolgy and so forth. My current thoughts are mass effect guns are close to Stub rounds but a bit better due to the technology deviation though bolter rounds are much better, but much harder to reproduce and there are even fewer of them to go around. Imperial guard armor very good, but don't expect it to nullify a Krogan shotgun at point blank. Now onto the story for now_

* * *

Yadrell took a few deep breaths as he walked away from the dead warrior variant. The bolt pistol was useless as none of the rounds even damaged it. He had to finish it off with his own powers before it nearly killed him.

Yadrell looked at the bolt pistol in confusion "That round should have killed me. Heck the last four rounds should have killed the Nid."

He opened the cartage only to find one last bullet with a small written note. He slowly unrolled the small note and groaned as it read "_**Just as planned**!"_ in big bold letters. The cartage had been replaced with blanks.

Yadrell shook his head in disappointment "I survived because some Tzeentch cultist managed to somehow steal a Space Marine's bolt pistol and replaced it with blanks in hopes he would get killed in the battlefield because of it? I do not know if I should laughing or crying at this moment."

The wind began to pick up as two small gunships appeared in the sky. Yadrell didn't bother running as he spotted the Cerberus paintjob. One of them slowly landed revealing Adam as Yadrell smiled. Apparently things were looking up for him only for reality to prove him wrong as the second one to be blown out of the sky as it crashed into the distance. He quickly turned around as he saw the yellow Tau crises suit. Apparently it had used the last of its rockets to blow up the other gunship as it rushed towards their position.

Yadrell jumped into the cockpit and shouted "Fly!"

Adam shut his eyes in frustration as the gunship quickly got off the ground before the tau mech reached them. Adam activated the ship's weapons and opened fire at the Tau mech. Most of the bullets barely scratched the paintjob as the missiles were the only effective weapon against it, but even then it didn't do much. The Tau mech activated it's jump jets and rose to their position as the flamer would have struck them if Adam didn't suddenly pull back.

Yadrell shouted "Get us out of here!"

Adam shouted back "He killed Faith and Charles!"

"People die." Yadrell shouted as the gunship rose out of the mech's range of fire "Let's make sure we don't join them!"

Adam wasn't happy about it but he knew the Yadrell was right. Even then with the loss of the TMG and explosives they didn't have anything left to damage the gate. Their only option was to leave the planet. The Tau mech kept following them as it somehow was able to keep up with the gunship. Adam couldn't tell if it was because his ship was not fully repaired or if the Tau mech was built to be fast though the jump jet let it cover a good distance when needed.

Adam turned on the radio and shouted "Home onto my signal and get the imperial vehicles ready! Hostile is chasing me. Destroy it quickly!"

Adam lowered his descent and fired a few rounds at the Tau mech as it jumped towards them. This time the flamer managed to get close as parts of the hull were damaged. The sensors were flashing warnings as the weapon was more powerful than the ship's shields.

Adam pulled up out of its range again as Yadrell shouted "What are you doing!"

Adam smiled as the Tau mech continued to chase them and said "Keeping out target focused on us. Last thing we need is for an advanced hostile to surive this battle."

Yadrell shouted in frustration "The planet is going to blow up! I don't it will be able to escape."

"Not if it hitches a ride from the Batarians." Adam said with convection "It took aim at our ships and fired without warning. Either the race is hostile or a Batarian found it empty and took it for a ride."

Yadrell shook his head "What about the ship? Did everyone get it set up?"

Adam nodded as he slowly said "They did what they could and followed your instructions. Hopefully you can pilot it out of here."

Two of the imperial vehicles came into view as they opened fire. One of them managed to get a lucky shot and destroyed one of the Tau mech's legs. A message was suddenly being sent out on every channel as it's jump jet activated one last time making it collide with one of the imperial vehicles before it self-destructed taking both of them out and leaving nothing possible to salvage from either machine.

Yadrell shook his head as he recognized the Tau tactic. Apparently it was a Tau piloting the mech as a question began to form in his mind. Why did it sound out one last message on every channel before going on its suicide run? If it had anything important it would have sent the message back to his superiors so why leave it out for anyone to possible hear it. A sudden thought stuck him as he began to wonder if it was left out for anyone to hear because it was a warning about him.

Yadrell looked down as the counsel and said "Any idea what the message was?"

Adam shook his head and said "I sacrifice my life in an attempt to stop the coming forces of chaos even though it shall mean my doom along with it. For the Greater Good." Adam grunted "A bunch of BS. It was properly some batarian trying to justify his actions before he went on a suicide run."

Yadrell smiled as he said "Well at least you got him."

Adam took a deep breath and said "Now it's time to leave this God forsaken place before it takes anymore lives."

* * *

Cetok smashed his fist against the shuttle wall as the message came through. Just about everyone who had come down to the planet had died. The only not hostile race he had encountered had just died as now Cerberus was now loading everyone up on a large ship with lots of new advanced technology.

It was always this way with the humans. First they picked a fight with the turians and just when the turians almost managed to get rid of them they managed to escape their richly deserved fate. The humans infected galactic space taking everything they could get their grubby hands on. Then they started stealing territory in the Skyllian Verge. Instead of just destroy the colonies right away they pleaded with the citadel counsel. They refused and let the humans keep stealing from them. By the time they managed to strike back the humans had already stolen enough of the resources and managed to get their ships in place to stop them.

Now humans were doing something stupid again as everyone else but them had to pay the price again as they were stealing as many things as they could before they tried to escape. If someone didn't act now then there was no telling what the humans would do with it. Cetok thought about his ship in space as he knew it was smaller, but he was not going to run away and give them time. A part of him also felt that the armored sniper named Yadrell was going to join someone then Cerberus was going to be it. This time he would not hide cowering in fear. This time he would fight back!

Cetok shouted "Tell everyone aboard the ship to get ready. If anything leaves that planet besides us blow it out of the sky!"

The pilot paused for a minute before he said "Sir… we just started seeing more ships."

Cetok shook his head "I just said"

The pilot interrupted him saying "There not hear yet. They are showing up just like the monsters on the planet. The sensors say they don't exist and all of them are larger than us."

* * *

Yadrell ran through the winding corridors as he reached the bridge and started to get to work. All of the doors were being closed as Yadrell flipped through the tactical systems as the ship prepared to lift off. The transport didn't have any main weapons as the few turrets left to defend it were destroyed during the Nid's space fight.

Yadrell rubbed his forehead and said "Let's see. No weapons. No turrets or the few that are left are to damage to use. The ship can enter the warp but it won't last long since the Gellar field was due for maintenance before the Nids attacked."

The ship started to take off as Yadrell held his breath as the ship started to register the space battle. It didn't take long for the ship to clear orbit and make it into space as Exterminates just struck the planet. A few torpedoes hit the planet setting the atmosphere ablaze as the explosion from the initial blast could be seen in orbit. More explosion went off as the planet started to break apart as the other ships started to disappear. Yadrell clenched his chest as he waited to see if he or the ship he was in was going to be dragged back. Soon even the lead ship disappeared leaving them and the batarian ship left.

The doors opened up as Adam shouted "Why are you letting the Batarian ship keep firing at us?"

Yadrell looked down at the sensors and said "You have to be fraking me. They really are shooting at us. The ship didn't register their weapons due to the planet blowing up from under us and they aren't doing any damage."

Adam shook his head in disbelief and said "What was this ship again?"

Yadrell couldn't help but laugh as he said "Just a low class transport vessel. It doesn't even have any guns. They can't even damage it despite all of the damage it already has!"

Both of them started to burst out laughing as the Batarian tried to continue its assault but none of its weapons were powerful enough to damage it. If any of the turrets were still working they properly could have easily blown it up or just taken their time. Yadrell switched over to navigation as he prepared to get the ship into the warp as he didn't bother wasting any time with the batarian ship. A part of him just felt like trying to ram the two ships together and simply scrap of the remains when they got to port though the batarian started to pull back. Yadrell took his hand at the ship's controls as he tried to chase after the ship only to detect a massive object in space.

Adam sighed as the batarian ship disappeared and said "They got to the mass relay before us."

Yadrell looked at Adam in confusion and said "Mass Relay?"

Adam nodded as he said "Large objects that let us travel our known section of the galaxy. I guess it's too much to hope that this ship can use it also."

Yadrell shook his head and said "I'm not going to try since I've never heard of them before. So do you have a destination in mind?"

Adam looked at the hololith and said "How fast can this ship go?"

"I wouldn't trust the sub light engines for long if any other parts of the ship took damage." Yadrell said with a hint of unease "The warp should get us there quickly, but I would suggest somewhere close or safe preferably both if possible."

Adam nodded as he picked one of the planets that he could remember that had a Cerberus base without too much activity. They needed to hide the ship quickly before anyone came to the planet only to find it blown apart.

Yadrell quickly punched in the system as the ship and said "A few blind jumps and we should be there… Just going in and out of the warp for a few light years to help ensure we don't get lost." Yadrell switched on the intercom "Everyone get ready for entry into the warp! The strange feeling your about to get is when the ship enters the warp."

What looked like a large hole in space just appeared ahead of the ship. The ship went though it as Adam had felt some unnerving feeling as the planet disappeared from sensors including everything else. Yadrell turned around and pointed at one of the chairs as he waited for Adam to sit down.

Yadrell took a deep breath and said "Now let's get a few questions out of the way while traveling on this trip. I ask a question and then you ask a question. I go first. What exactly is Cerberus?"

"It is a rouge terrorist organization that is not under the supervision of the Earth Alliance." Adam calmly said "That is what everyone else will say, but really we protect humanity and get shit done. We are a Pro-human organization that puts humanity's interest first. Is that going to be a problem?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "No, but now I am wondering if you have any open positions since I'm stuck here now."

Adam chuckled as he replied "In exchange for sharing your technology I think you will be welcomed with open arms. My turn. What organization did you work for before?"

Yadrell looked up at the celling and said "For most of my life I worked aboard a Rogue Trader ship. One sanctioned with the Write of Trade to explore, trade, colonize new worlds and fight with the imperial navy if needed. We just solved problems that planetary governments had. Each ship was it's own organization and they were part of the better years of my life."

Yadrell closed his eyes as he looked back kindly on the memories even if they were not all pleasant. Then his mind came to when he was strong armed into Chaos and the deeds he had committed. Terrorist organization was a strong term to describe a group, but somehow Yadrell didn't think all of his actions during his time with Chaos would be approved.

Yadrell sighed heavily and said "Then my skills were noticed by the Inquisition. A group set to protect humanity against the dangerous of the galaxy. Our little trip on the planet wouldn't even reach the top ten in some of the mission we were sent on. We were a small group sent to deal with large problems with few rules that were only set by the inquisition. Nobody liked the inquisition or even trusted it, but they knew it served an important purpose which everyone had to grudgingly accept. Some of the tasks we had to do would have gotten a regular soldier shot."

Adam nodded as he said "It seems our two worlds do have a few things in common though I think your inquisition has a better PR team than ours. Your turn."

Yadrell thought back to the energy attack that Adam had used against the Nids and said "What is a Biotic and their status in society?"

Adam scratched his head and said "Status?"

Yadrell nodded as he said "The imperium tends to have different perspectives on certain individuals. Being a psyker either lands you on a black ship where you are tortured until you are broken so they have a disposable weapon. A few get luck and join the space marines before they are found out or the inquisition strong arms them into their service hopefully before their trip on a black ship but usually afterwards. Rouge traders tend to have different opinions depending on the captain. The Rouge Trader ship that I was on didn't care and helped me out."

Adam couldn't help but shiver as he said "What about human rights?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "With training I was able to lift a small item with my mind. After learning how to tap into and use the warp I was able to blast a hole into a Tank. I should also tell you that the only way to be a psyker is to be born one… or have a couple encounter unexposed to the warp though most people tend to die or go crazy or have their body mutate into mindless monsters that no longer look human before that happens."

Adam looked at the ship and said "And we are in the warp."

"But as long as the Gellar Shield is active we will be safe." Yadrell quickly said "Besides the creatures that reside in the warp would try to kill us if the shield went down before anyone mutated. Daemons originated from the warp after all."

Adam slowly nodded and said "As for your question about Biotics. You get people exposed to Element Zero or "eezo" as they call it. It then either does not work or cause a few bad side effects. The times it does work gets you a Biotic and then you have to get an implant and with training you are able to great mass effect fields." Yadrell simply nodded though he was a little bit confused "Biotics can knock enemies over from a distance, lift them into the air, generate gravitational vortices to tear obstacles or enemies apart, or create protective barriers, but we cannot read minds or control minds. Some people may have misconceptions or fears, but the Alliance military and Cerberus welcomes biotic individuals with open arms with good enlistment incentives, but I can tell you that we treat biotics a lot better than your Imperium. Can you tell me about your Imperium or your service record?"

"The Imperium is what protects most of humanity." Yadrell recited "Each day the imperial guard and navy fights a battle against one of the races as we have been in constant warfare since the foundation in the 30th Millennium and it is currently the 42nd Millennium as new races have appeared and anything not human is trying to kill us. What about you?"

Adam shook his head and said "Worst we had was the war with the Turians, but after seeing what had happened on the planet it is properly safe to say most of our current skirmishes or wars depending on your opinion are nowhere near what you are used to unless we count the Geth assault on the Citadel."

Yadrell lay back in the chair and relaxed. The new universe didn't so too bad to be stuck in as it's only problem seemed to be the impending reaper invasion whenever that would happen.

"As for my record…" Yadrell slowly said as he tried to figure out what to say "On the rogue trader vessel my job was to go help with negations by taking a glimpse into the future, but mostly shoot things."

"Wait hold up." Adam said in disbelief "You can see the future?"

Yadrell sighed and said "Time doesn't follow the same rules in the warp. I can take a glimpse and see certain events, but most of those are just as useful as a mission briefing and even then it isn't set in stone. Just by looking at the future you changed it and the further ahead you look into the future leaves for a less accurate one that could also be wrong. A few wealthy individuals who hid their psyker ability had looked into the future to make all of their business plans and did make a decent amount of money… until they made wrong decision due to a glimpse and went mad because they lost everything. Relaying on it too much tends to be more dangerous than getting drunk and calling a commissar a heretic loving fool in a fancy dress which ends with a round in the head."

Adam thought about Yadrell's knowledge about some of the past events and said "So that's how you knew so much?"

Yadrell shrugged as he said "I tried getting a glimpse of the future and got a glimpse of the past for the most part. Even then it's not one hundred percent right or a guarantee that I can see what is going to happen next if I try to get a glimpse of the future. My turn… What can you tell me about the reapers?"

* * *

The Illusive Man looked over the latest reports. Shepard had finally kicked the bucket as the collectors were abducting more human colonies. The reapers were coming while all the other races tried to ignore the warnings as the Collectors were just the beginning. Grant it he didn't care if the other races were wiped out, but he wanted to make sure that humanity survived and that Cerberus came out on top. It was then a report came as it reported an unidentified ship that just appeared near one of their bases with the Cerberus operatives that were deemed lost after the destruction of the planet.

The Illusive Man smiled as he looked over the summary of the report. The survivors claimed to have survived by using the transport ship that came from another universe and most of their claims seemed to sound like a poorly written vid, but the weapons and technology were real and their sleeping patient had a few interesting talents and wanted to join Cerberus.

He smiled to himself "Looks like things are looking up for humanity after all." He pushed one on the buttons near him and said "Miranda. Get a team ready to check what had happened to the survivors Binthu and containment of the advanced weapons they have found. We need to keep this kept secret."

"On it." Miranda said before the signal went off.

The Illusive Man looked back through the records and tried to find the Batarian called Cetok that had been claiming that Cerberus was summoning demons to devour them all. Apparently he had not gone crazy and was just blaming humans for all their problems. The only question was if he needed to be dealt with since he left Batarian space and started raiding planets and attempting to unite some of the other Batarian slavers together into a unified force or some such nonsense.

* * *

Samual opened his eyes as a blinding light stuck his eyes leaving him dazed for a few moments until they adjusted to the light. All of the aches and pains in his body had left him now as he stood up ready to fight if there was trouble only to stand still as he saw the Golden Throne and the Emperor of Mankind sitting in it. It was not the same golden throne that held his body back on holy Terra, but larger in a sense due to the light and holiness it seemed to have around it. The Emperor himself actually smiled when he saw Samual. He quickly went to his knees in front of the Emperor as Samual finally knew he was dead and hoped the Emperor could forgive him for losing a world to Chaos and the traitors xenos.

The Emperor said in a calm voice "Stand up Samual. You are not dead yet. You just had a nasty fall after being shot in the back as you fell into the portal."

Samual looked up in confusion and said "I'm not dead?"

The Emperor shook his head "Though you may wish you were for the task I have for you is not an easy one."

Samual stood up and his grip tightened around his hotshot and shouted "I am ready for any trial or challenge you ask of me as I shall do my best until my body fails me or when the task is complete!"

The Emperor chuckled for a moment and then said "Good."

For a second something seemed off, but Samual cleared the thought from his mind. The Emperor himself was giving him a second chance! He shouldn't let doubt cause him to hesitate as he cleared his mind and he waited for the Emperor's orders.

The Emperor opened his hand as the Tau world appeared in his hand along with fight in space as he said "Chaos nearly took hold of the planet, but the Exterminates prevented it... to an extent. You see it plunged the entire world and the space around it into the warp, but not in the domain of chaos."

Samual quickly shouted "So the battle is not lost!"

The Emperor nodded "The battle is far from over which is why when you fell though the portal I had brought you here and healed your wounds. You see you will be sent to another universe and help humanity prepare to help save this world from the Imperium's enemies and help stop the Abominable Intelligence called the Reapers from destroying them."

Samual nodded back and said "I shall carry your will and help these worlds join the Imperium."

A look of sorrow filled the Emperor's face as he said "The task will not be that ease. You will be sent to another universe where Holy Terra is still in it's infancy. Where the Imperium had not been made and where my presence is but a flicker as I do not exist there in much the same way that the dark gods of chaos are not there."

Samual looked at the Emperor in confusion and said "What is it you want me to do? I am no priest or scholar. I am just a humble soldier."

The Emperor rose from his throne and put his hand on Samual's shoulder and said "And that is all I'm asking you to be. You have lead men into battle and helped inquisitors walk the fine line between heresy and actions that must be done to keep humanity alive. I just want you to help humanity get ready for the coming storm and give you one last chance to save the world you were sent to protect as it shall emerge into that universe before the Reapers attack."

Samual nodded as his heart filled with pride as he said "I shall not fail you."

The Emperor nodded as he said "And one last thing. Get ready to duck and Medigel is an invention made by humans. Very useful for patching wounds."

The Emperor pushed Samual back as he fell through a portal. Once Samual dispeared the area changed back into a black empty void as the throne was now bone white as a large bucket of popcorn stood at it's side along with a large soda. The Emperor himself was replaced now with a black daemon made out of mist laughing loudly.

The daemon sat in the throne and said "I can't fraking believe that actually worked! I wonder what his reaction will be when he sees and Asira, Asro… Asari! That's the name I'm looking for." The demon paused for a moment "Better yet his reaction when he find about their steamy relationship with humans!"

The daemon laughed out loud shaking the throne as a remote control fell into his hand. He quickly turned on the flat screen television that appeared into existence as it revealed the imperium's ships along with it's captains trying to figure out what just happened. The planet was still there even after their attempts to blow it up. The daemon quickly hit the pause button as everything froze.

The daemon looked at one of the ships and said "Frak! Double headed eagle not single headed. Where is the channel?" He muttered to himself as he flipped through them.

Dozens of images passed by the screen. Cerberus and their Project overlord taking it's dark turn. The Batarian government messing around with that reaper artifact as a couple of them was already indoctrination without even knowing it. That blue sun ship picking up two life pods that carried Nids including purebred Genestealers, a few hybrids and lictors.

"Wait!" The Daemon shouted "Record and play back latter. That might get me a few laughs latter on." The images kept flickering until they reached the Transport ship "Ah there it is. Just a quick fix and… there. Hopefully no one noticed it. Last thing I need is for them to find out I stole aboard the ship to enter this nice new spacious warp with no pesky neighbors."

The Daemon paused for a moment. The warp was silent and free for him to use, but how long would it take for someone to notice his presence and that the ship wasn't actually an imperial ship, but one he just glued together from fallen ships left in the warp. In fact that he stuffed the ship's databanks with a few helpful bits of lore, but no weapon blue prints or "how to repair your broken ship" guides lying about would surely raise a few questions if somebody looked to hard.

The daemon rubbed his chin "Gellar field is intact barely just because I hate those pesky things… Not needed any more!"

He laughed snapping his fingers as the machine suddenly blew up along with the warp engine. Sure it still had damaged sub-light engines, but it could no longer go back into the warp for now since Cerberus had found the ship and started working on it. The daemon went back to flipping through the channels and paused at a place called Purgatory. The strings of fate were tried around the place as it seemed someone had a strong destiny there. He couldn't help but crack open a grin as dark thoughts filled his head. There was something new he could play with in there as he flipped open a book and looked for the individual.

The daemon quoted "Jack, also known as Subject Zero, is a notorious criminal whose crimes include piracy, kidnapping, vandalism and murder. She is also a biotic, possibly one of the most powerful human biotics alive, and is considered so dangerous that she was kept in cryogenic stasis after she was caught." The daemon nodded his head for a moment. Strong, powerful, and an impressive rap sheet under her belt… or belts in this case. "She ran with various gangs, became a pirate, crashed a space station into a hanar moon (becoming wanted for vandalism in the process), and at one point joined a cult, keeping her head shaved even after her departure."

The daemon laughed out loud. She was an interesting soul and crazy to boot. The universe wouldn't mind if he played around with such an interesting soul and had a little but of fun. Besides there was someone else who could do her task during Shepard's suicide mission. The daemon flipped around the channels trying to find something else and paused at the Citadel.

The daemon grunted in frustration and said "You're not supposed to be here yet. You're much to boring and would make a mess of my game star child. Now how get I get rid of you?"

The daemon looked back at the paused image of the space battle stuck in time and spotted the Chaos ship full of crazed psycho paths and super soldier hell bent on killing everything in the galaxy except for the few sane ones in charge who wanted to rule it instead. The daemon grinned as a small model of the ship appeared in his hand.

"Now let's see." The daemon said to himself as he moved the ship around in his hand "How did those other fellows with the world on the sea turtle's back make that board? I'm going to need a few pieces to move around to get rid of that whinny brat. The reapers and much more interesting as Harbinger would make a much better main villain than that little pest. Heck I would properly be doing the galaxy a favor."

The veil between the warp and reality may have been stronger than back home, yet Yadrell had proved that it could still be broken. All that was needed was a couple more daemons being summoned, chaos going nuts, and possibly a chaotic fall of some race.

A tau fell in front of throne shouting "I'm alive?"

The daemon paused for a moment and then said "Ahh. That's right time tends to work differently in the warp especially in this one… Well to skip to the main points. You're being sent to another universe. There aren't any other races and it's at least a good thirty thousand years before you race evolves far enough to learn how to make fire much less use a plasma gun, but humans are still around."

"What?" The tau said in confusion

The daemon tossed a two Tau drones along with the control system at him and continued "One has your fancy tau shields and the other has one of those marker light things that lets all of you hit the same target a lot easier. A deadly machine race called the reaper will come and try to kill everyone, but only after the planet you were just on emerges from the warp into this new universe. You Ethereal is alive, but the Nids are winning so if you don't get any allies your blue buddies will be Nid chow along with your boss. Have fun!"

The daemon snapped his fingers as the Tau fell through a portal in the floor along with the items. A single tau left in an alien world being the only hope for his planet and must find allies to save his world. A better question would be if they thought he was crazy or if he caused a galactic incident due to the fact he was a new undiscovered race and his planet's arrival would bring millions of life devouring monsters.

The daemon looked back at the board in surprise as a dozen pieces now filled it as multiple sides had their own pieces. One was filled with the collectors and their special little base and mas relay along with a glass timer near by it. Another group had the Cerberus symbol from this universe as dozen of human soldiers scattered the board as a chance deck laid beside that side of the table. The last side had a knocked over piece as the rest were scattered, chipped or not even on the board yet, though if they managed to get all their pieces than they would be a strong force. The daemon smiled as he placed the chaos ship onto his side of the board. The Imperial transport ship appeared along with Yadrell wearing Cerberus colors as the Tau and Imperial soldier pieces stood on opposite sides of the board as a small glass timer stood in-between them. The daemon pulled out a small piece from the Chaos ship and placed the escape pod in the middle of the board as it quickly disappeared only to be replaced with the prison Purgatory. A pair of dice fell towards him as a new piece suddenly appeared that looked like a daemonette.

The daemon couldn't help but smile as he said "And thus not even moving to another universe will let you escape from a clingy psychotic daemon girl. I just thought she would have disappeared along with the most of the other aligned daemons, but somehow she has a good hold here. Either Slaanesh really liked her or her unhealthy obsession is giving her the power she needs to survive here along with the slaughter she currently was committing. The other aligned daemons that got dragged through were trying to regain their strength in the warp or were being dragged back home due to their connection with the dark gods who have no or very little power over here." The daemon took up the dice "Now let's see how well my pieces go into play."

* * *

Three months later Purgatory

Kuril the turian warden in charge of Purgatory looked the new group of prisoners as they were locked into the cells. Each one of the humans had some sort of star brandished into their skin as they mumbled to each other. It was hard to believe that they had managed to kill the crew of an entire ship that had rescued their life pod without any weapons somehow and then tried a very short career of being pirates only to end it by ramming their ship into one of the blue sun's bases. The few that had survived were sent to purgatory to make their life miserable and simply because the local government on the planet didn't want to deal with them.

Kuril shouted at one of the cultist "Get a nice long look at your cell because it's going to be the last thing you will ever see!"

The cultist turned around shouting "The dark gods shall set us free and you shall know their wrath worm!"

He started laughing madly as Kuril shook his head. No one had bothered giving them an implant to help translated the languages simply because they thought it would be a waste of money to give it to someone being sent to jail for life. Still they always managed to somehow answer any questions asked even if it was just insane gibberish.

The only thing that could be said about them was they could fight. Already in the short amount of time they had been aboard Purgatory they had killed five other inmates, six guards, and injured over thirty other inmates. Now they were forced to be locked inside their cells at all times and the only reason why Kuril didn't kill them right away was because the money being given to them to keep them alive and miserable was worth it. Even then a few of them could be worth a decent sum of credits if he decided to sell them anyway.

Kuril left them as he didn't bother giving them a second thought. To him they were just another bunch of crazed nut jobs that filled his prison. Given a few days another group would properly be sent that were just as crazy as these except they wouldn't be human. Kuril highly doubt that he would even remember them after a month of two. Still they were kind of creepy as something about them just gave him the shivers especially the ones who kept scratching the wall with his nails as he kept trying to draw a few weird symbols. A fresh coat of paint would properly fix that problem though.

* * *

Samuel woke up as his head ached in pain as he had just landed on a metal table. Around him a few filthy xenos stared at him in confusion as they held guns pointed at the humans being held hostage. Samuel quickly reached for his chain sword and swung it at the first alien. The foul xeno's device tried to create some sort of shield, but it was no match for the emperor's blessing as his blade cut through the alien's neck releasing a fountain of blood as the other foul xenos shouted in their harsh alien language.

At that moment Samuel remembered the warning and ducked as they opened fire missing him. He didn't waste any time as he cleaved through the next two near him and hid behind an over turned table and waited for them to reload their weapons before he switched to his hotshot. Once the gun fire stopped he rose up and fired as the las bolt tore through their worthless shields killing them instantly. Samual shot two more shots killing the last of the foul xenos as the humans looked up at him in awe and confusion.

Samuel looked around at his surroundings as he didn't recognize any of them as the emperor's words came back reminding him that this was a different universe. As if to confirm this a poster of Holy Terra back in its infancy stood on the wall as the words Terra Firma were crudely written underneath it in the planet's native language, but Samual could easily recognize the words of Earth no matter which human dialect it was spoken or in this case written in.

Samual moved near one of the window and saw more of the foul xenos trying to take over the colony. Rage filled his heart as he saw his first mission in this new universe which obviously was to cleanse this planet of the xenos and help guide these people. One of the humans rose up and spoke as Samual couldn't understand his language.

Samual shook his head and said "They don't even speak basic gothic." Samual put away his hotshot and said out loud with large hand gestures "Stay here. I am going to kill the xenos outside." He sighed as he said to himself "Already lost with a bunch of blood thirsty xenos trying to stop humanity from achieving its destiny as I can't understand a fraking word their saying. It's just like home."

* * *

The tau woke up as the ground under his feat was metallic. His two drones laid next to him as a small crack of light from a window shined on them. He stood up and tried to get a sense of where he was as the daemon's message kept playing back in his mind. The world had been saved though it was only a matter of time before the Tyranids finished the job unless he got some allies together. Outside a group of alien machines were looking around as one of them turned invisible through some cloaking device.

At first he thought they might have been necrons or some variant of them only to dismiss the thought. The necrons were all alike and these looked completely different from them. One of these machines pulled out their weapons and opened fire against a small group of aliens in armor. He didn't know why the two groups seemed to be in combat with each other or if either side would react kindly to him even if he saved them. He saw the group of aliens under gunned, under manned, and severely out matched making him remember the imperial guard soldier he shot in the back.

The tau slowly muttered to himself "For the greater good."

Not once in his life did the words taste so bitter in his mouth as it had that moment. He looked at the helpless aliens trying to survive as one of them were killed by one of the machine's weapons. He held out his riffle and took aim at the largest machine as his drones prepared to help give him support. He just hoped he was picking the right side this time as he pulled the trigger destroying the largest one in one shot as the other machines turned towards his direction ready to open fire.

* * *

Eliza laid back in the room and popped open a bottle of wine and took a sip from it. All around her were the bodies of asari, human, a few turians and even a krogan. Each of them put up a fight yet all of them failed as she killed every one of them as the walls were now painted in their blood. Eliza looked out into the warp to find it deathly quiet now even though the Nids were gone.

She could feel the attachment or "tug" of Slaanesh, but it was incredibly weak. In fact without the recent slaughter she properly wouldn't have even been able to sustain herself in her new body. Her old one came out a bit ragged and the asari had been so open about _melding_ that she simply couldn't refuse. It was quite an enjoyable when the asari started screaming when she took over the asari. Everyone else started to panic and then came the blood bath as she enjoyed every sensational slaughter. She even kept a few of them alive so that she could _test_ the new body a little before she killed them though most of them didn't last that long.

Eliza looked up at the mural on the celling as somehow it was also mostly covered in blood and said "No wonder you tried blowing up a planet to hide this little gem. A universe free to corrupt as no one knows who or even _what_ you are. Even those tied to the gods have been weakened due to the strength of the veil and the lack of their dark god's presence." She took another sip and continued "But you can't just promise a girl a date and then back out of it without letting her know. You should never underestimate a woman's wrath or the strength it gives her. I just hope you get my message soon Yaddy."

Eliza got up and tried to wear one of the human's suits of clothing. While they were not as revealing as she had liked they could be worn in public without too much fuss. She chuckled to herself as she began to wonder how relaxed this new universe was if they let people walk around in such clothing that would have labeled them heretic or at least a joygirl back home. Eliza looked into the mirror as she saw her own demonic nature changing the body with the power and corruption of the warp.

The skin was no longer blue as it a human flesh pink as the blue tendril had changed into the old thin ones that was more like hair than squid tentacles. Even then most of the alien's traits seemed to be overlooked or replaced with human ones though then again the two species looked a lot like each other so it wasn't too hard come to think of it. Eliza pulled out the lipstick and applied it to her lips and gave the mirror a kiss.

Behind her the mirror showed the bloodshed a message spelled "I'm here Yaddy!" The kiss in the mirror made the period in the exclamation at the end of the sentence.

Eliza packed up her new bags as both of her human like hands pulled out a set of gloves to cover the inhuman features that now adorned them. She pushed open the door smiling as not a speck of blood covered her new set of clothes as a dozen other humans and aliens couldn't help but look at her with a hint of curiosity and lust at the same time.

After a few hours a dozen of police cars came as dozens of people were asked about anyone leaving the scene of the crime and what had destroyed all of the cameras and their recordings. By the time they managed to get a rough sketch of Eliza she had already managed to charm her way on board a ship that took her off the planet as the ship never reached its attended destination.

_Hope this solves some of the problems and the flaming. Yes there will be differences as these are two very different universes and sometimes mash ups tend to have a few strange or different things happen. Yes there may be a difference of opinion or need to recheck a source... Then again Necron were once mindless/(mind controlled) robotic killing machines who served their eldritch masters and now they have a Necron group BFF with space marines which technically is cannon. So a lot stranger things have happened in 40k. Yes this is a cheap shot and it was a rewrite of their history by Matt Ward along with the power of nerfing and cheese (if I'm correct)._


	6. Chapter 6

**Warp effect ch6**

**Project Choices**

_Author note – I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop_

_New chapter up and yes it is with Project Overlord. It is a moment that for some people really showed Cerberus for what they really were and well I thought it would be a good point to start and took some liberties with some things. (For one the Antenna dish. I made the room a bit taller than the short mass effect 2 height made for game design. Second I did a small cheap cop out for the "Shepard sees the digital world" since that was never really explained as it was just given to let people still shoot things while the end of the story went on. Closest answer I found was David was digital and shepherd was X% of nanotech so he hacked the nanotech._

_There is a bit reverse engineering along with a few attempts to combine Imperial and Mass Effect technology and equipment. Other than that this chapter is a bit longer than usual._

* * *

Yadrell set up the new sniper rifle with unease as he got into position as he kept the long las within arm's reach. It was one made by their cogheads in an attempt to enhance their current riffles by using the design of the bolters. It was large and unwieldy unless he was a space marine and the bullets just as big though less effective than a regular bolter's bullets.

Yadrell flipped on the vox system and said "Lug shot ready for deployment."

Adam moaned as he said "They list it as the XK47. This is a test run to see how effective they are."

Yadrell nodded as he laid down and started to position himself as he said "You saw the vast difference between the one eaten by a nid and a fully functioning one. That doesn't even come to terms in quality with the bolt pistol I had given your cogheads."

Adam sighed as he repeated "The amount of money used to produce your "bolter rounds" would be better used to mass produce the laser weapons you had brought or better yet the plasma weapons. We can at least reproduce the ammo for those a lot easier than the bolter rounds."

Yadrell looked through the scope as he saw the car and said "The ones from the ships tore through your training dummies and a few live targets with ease."

Adam grunted as he responded "Yet your las guns can hold over one hundred shots while a bolter tends to have much fewer. Heck your las pistols held about forty while the bolt pistol held eight rounds. I prefer to have a gun with lots of ammo."

Yadrell conceded the point and said "Well testing out a new gun is better than being stuck in the labs translating or explaining my home. So what did this xenos do?"

Adam chuckled as he said "Does it matter?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "They gave me one bullet and one target instead of the dozen other higher profile xenos. So I kind of think he does matter."

Another voice chipped in saying "They are all important. The matter of the situation is after the first round people will notice and I highly doubt you could take them all out with one bullet. If you can't get the shot do not switch to the laser weapon. We need to keep that a secret and there are too many cameras to hide all of the evidence from one being used."

Adam ignored the other person and said "They are trying to get rid of some minor human defense force forming in the terminus systems. Apparently a few of them managed to get some defenses against raiders and trying to defend themselves against the Collectors. Problem is they are a subset of Terra Firma which is a pro-human organization and apparently they are starting to worry a few other groups that were profiting from the chaos."

Yadrell switched the scope as he zoomed in and said "So cause a bit of chaos and make the targets disappear."

The other voice shouted "Look future boy! One shot and one bullet! Do the math and take the target."

Yadrell smiled as he said "One shot" he pulled the trigger as it stuck the oil tank and exploded turning the car into a flaming missile towards the other delegates "One bullet." The car crashed into the group and exploded as everyone ran around screaming in the chaos "And more than one kill."

Yadrell looked through the scope as a few of the others hired bodyguards started to open fire at each other. It was a blood bath as the few remaining delegates were either running away, hiding or dead. Yadrell got up and started to brush himself off as he put away the riffle. All ready he could hear the cursing screaming and confusion being shouted at from his vox system.

Yadrell strapped the riffle to his back and said "They all had mercs. Each from different groups and built on a fragile, but profitable arrangement. Through a few names together and make it seem like none of them would be stupid enough to try to kill each other in broad daylight and then do it for them. Half will try to regain order and the other half will shoot them first."

Adam spoke first over the shouting "But they wouldn't start shooting right away… What the hell did you do to that driver?"

Yadrell climbed down a ladder from balcony and continued "Made him talk. Get an idea where a few of his mercs were and whisper a few subtle hints."

Adam went silent for a moment and then said "You used some crazy vodo on them didn't you."

Yadrell shook his head as he said "Well… yes. I guess you could call it that since the nightmares didn't let them sleep for two days. Look I needed to test something out and these missions are one of the few times I'm not surrounded by people constantly monitoring me."

Adam sighed as he quickly said "Look whatever quirks you may have."

Yadrell quickly countered "I like being prepared for possible situations and making sure a few of my less orthodox skills are kept in shape especially since that corpse retrieval job."

Anger filled Adam's voice as he said "That was command Shepard mind you. Besides training and along with getting both you and our scientist use to the quirks of both universes took a bit of time. Your ship is essentially a Prothean Beacon to us as its technology and information has helped advanced a couple of our fields quite quickly and you are the only person who can help translate or fix some of the technical problems."

Yadrell nodded as he got to the safe point and said "Well lets see what else is happening now."

* * *

Adam turned off the vox system as The Illusive Man came in saying "Well how did it go?"

Adam sighed "You do realize it is only a matter of time till he finds out."

"But it is better he finds out on our terms than theirs" The Illusive Man countered "What do you think his first reaction would be if he found out his Imperial world was about to fall into our galaxy at some random time?"

"Technically it was one owned by the Tau" Adam slowly said as the words sounded empty to him. "Besides he has been a good operative."

The Illusive man shook his head and said "But he has been keeping a couple of secrets from us. Did you know his "interrogation" lasted over two hours?"

Adam simply shrugged as he responded "So he might have been a little more through than he needed to be."

"According to the recording devices on his omni tool the person had been died during the first hour." The Illusive Man said "Somehow he kept the person alive and able to talk for another thirty minutes when every medical textbook would declare him dead. After the next thirty minutes the omni tool could barely detect a body. Would you like to see the footage?"

Adam forced back the taste of vomit he was feeling in the back of his throat and said "Keeping him in the dark isn't any better. He suspects something. Besides what else could he be hiding besides a few trade secrets?"

The Illusive man shook his head and said "Our very being and questions man has pondered since the dawn of time. Apparently Yadrell has a talent with speaking to souls. Not any technology manipulation or analyzing dead brain matter like the Tyranid lictor you had run into. A few of the translated documents has confirmed the very existence of a soul and the afterlife."

Adam couldn't help but think it was crazy at first until he remembered the reports of demons. Even then considering that the ship itself had a small room devoted as some sort of church including a few prayer verses.

The Illusive man continued "The other problem is that he is not the only wayward soul transported here. One of these so called "Tau" have been seen traveling with Quarian as Terra Firma's new military advisor wears a similar uniform and divides the troops into PDF and SDF with imperial guard regiment tactics. Then to make matters worse apparently someone or something is actively searching for him as they left a couple of murder scenes leaving messages to him like normal people sending postcards. How long do you think he would stay if he found out about any of them?"

Adam thought about it for a moment. He highly doubt Yadrell would join up with the Tau considering the rough relationship the Imperium seemed to have with the aliens. Though the fact a Pro-human group was being led by another imperial guardsman might cause a few questions in loyalties. Even then the person leaving murders across the galaxy trying to find him didn't make things easier as keeping him locked away in secret did sound like a good thing at the moment. Still it would only be a matter of time before Yadrell did something about his current situation.

Adam tried to stand tall as he said "What about the collectors? You are brining Shepard back into the game. Why not have him join them?"

The Illusive Man paused for a moment and then said "Let's just say I don't like to leave all of my eggs in one basket."

Adam quickly took this up and added "Then why not give Yadrell a ship also? Have him try to form a team or get ready for the arrival of that planet? He needs to do something to do to keep himself occupied and he has been able to keep himself discreet."

The Illusive Man slowly said "He turned a single round and killed over half a dozen people in broad daylight causing an incident that is flooding most of the channels in the system."

Adam looked at the incident and said "He is getting bored and is testing out his talents."

The Illusive Man shook his head and countered "He is experimenting with that book he has. Each mission he tried out some new technique to add to his growing arsenal. The truth of the matter is that I do not trust him. Shepard's loyalty can be bought with the danger of the collectors and the fact that no one else is doing anything about it. Where does Yadrell's loyalty lie?"

Adam shouted "Then give us a chance instead of being stuck as lab assistants!'

The Illusive Man paused for a moment and then said "Well Shepard's current is looking better, but not finished and a mission has come up. The scientist of Project Overlord have run into a problem as we need someone to investigate it as this also gives us a chance to test out some of the prototypes."

Adam smiled as he said "Thank you."

The Illusive Man turned his back and said "Don't disappointment. For the record both of you are under observation for this mission. Aurelia Winters shall accompany for the mission."

Adam slowly nodded as he said "I'm also under observation?'

The Illusive Man's image went out as Adam sat back in the chair as he began to wonder what he had just gotten himself into.

* * *

Adam sat in the new Cerberus Drake as he checked out the modified imperial storm trooper armor as he made sure that the systems were in working order along with his omni tool. The Cerberus Drake was essentially a damaged Chimera that lots its wheels that was retrofitted with the same technology that let the M-44 Hammerhead fly. While it was slower it did have more maneuverability than the standard Chimera despite a few weak points in its hull and still had better armor and weapons that the M-44 Hamerhead. While it was a weak attempt to combine the two technologies it was an actual attempt to restore or reuse some of the damaged imperial vehicles since they lacked the necessary materials and techniques needed to fully repair them.

They had arrived in the Typhon System and just made planet fall on Aite as the vehicles landed decently. The landing was slightly rougher than he had expected, but then again the Chimera was originally built as a land based vehicle that was supposed to stay on the ground. Still the new systems seemed to be working without any major problems as the new hover jets actually worked better on the vehicle than the original despite the major overhauls they had to do to lift the Chimera.

The driver laughed as he shouted into the Vox System "Tell George he owes me fifty Credits! It landed like a butterfly!"

The person shouted back "I wouldn't say it was like a butterfly as it nearly crashed into the ground."

The driver laughed as he said "Still a bet's a bet." After a few bits of mumbling the driver shouted "Hope you enjoyed Drake transports for all of your top secret mission means of transport!"

The doors opened up as Adam walked outside and looked at the station. Nobody was around as their arrival should have alerted some of the guards or gotten them some attention. Adam held his new assault rifle and shotgun as they were both slightly bulker than the standard ones, but the bullets were a lot stronger thanks to some of their attempts in reverse engineering the imperial bolter technology and just to be safe he kept one of the las pistols at his side in case any problems came up since they had been granted permission to use the laser weapons for the duration of the mission.

Adam looked at the other two as Yadrell came walking out in the imperial storm trooper uniform carrying the long las and a few las pistols along with one of the staffs that he had managed to repurpose from the ship's storage as it had apparently belonged to one of the sanctioned psykers. The staff now held the image of some sort of star and felt a lot more ominous that it's original counterpart. Yadrell scanned the area as he held his riffle with ease ready in case something happened.

Aurelia Winters on the other hand held one of the new modified pistols along with a las pistol for her only weapons. She wore one of the basic imperial guard uniforms that had been added onto the basic Cerberus uniform to allow her easier movement as she was not use to the imperial guard uniforms. Her main job was to handle any technical aspects of the job and to give them an engineer for the team though her real purpose was to help give an assessment of the two of them. Yadrell didn't seem to be bothered by it though Adam couldn't help but feel a little bit nerves in case they did run into a fire fight. While the imperial guard armor did grant them better protection the basic version left the face exposed making headshots more dangerous to her than their fully protected version even if he was still trying to get used to it.

Adam couldn't help but ask as he said "Miss Winters… Why didn't you get the Storm variant and just went with the basic suit instead?"

Winter smiled as she said "Simply because someone has to test it out. Besides there are only twelve storm trooper uniforms. Six are left unmodified and are being studied. Four are back on the ship being tested leaving the last two on both of you while there are over a hundred basic imperial guard uniforms left aboard the ship. Your suits are too valuable to waste on a simple mission like this."

Everyone stopped as they suddenly received a radio transmission as fear filled the person's voice as he said "Thank God you came! My name is Dr. Gavin Archer. Situation is urgent – we are facing a catastrophic VI breakout. I'll explain the details later, but you must retract that transmission dish! The controls aren't far from your position. You have to hurry."

Yadrell shook his head and said "So much for a simple mission."

Adam nodded as he switched to his shotgun and took point as he walked through the door. Yadrell followed behind them as Winter took the rear obviously unhappy to see the situation had become much worse than she had expected. Inside the base they could see dead bodies along with signs of a fight. It didn't take long for Archer to update them on the situation before he cut of the call.

Adam took a look at the room and said "Just great. We have rouge Geth to deal with."

Yadrell searched the logs and said "This doesn't sound good. From the sounds of the logs it looks like they tried something to give them a shortcut in their research and backfired."

Winter looked at Yadrell in confusion and said "They just said they were making progress in those old reports."

Yadrell pointed at the dead bodies and said "And then this happens? I've been around enough incidents like this to let you know that there is more to this story than meets the eye. Back home it would mean a… incident had happened. Here I am betting something none of you will enjoy looking at."

Winter stood in the control as she focused on her work and said "I was caught up on you and where exactly you are from. I think I know what we are dealing with."

She hit the controls as it started to work until a system's error came up as an image appeared on the screens glowing green as some sort of face appeared for a moment. Some sort of static or damaged voice synthesizer spewed out noise before the image disappeared as everything seemed to return to normal.

Yadrell looked at Adam and said "You said your universe doesn't have daemons running lose?"

Before Adam could answer Archer appeared as he said "The VI's overridden the controls. We have to stop him – he's trying to upload his program off-planet. Destroy the Antenna inside the dish. There is a tram on the lower level. Get to it as fast as you can!"

Winter looked at the doorway and said "It's just a Rouge VI and I can assure you that there isn't anything special or creepy about it. We just need to stop the Geth and fix this situation before it gets out of control."

The rouge VI's face for a better word kept appearing alongside the monitors disappearing and reappearing for a few seconds as a time as it continued to watch them as the strange noise continued to come from it. Adam couldn't help but feel a little unnerved as Winter held his pistol more tightly while Yadrell wasn't bothered by it in the least as he ignored the VI.

It didn't take long before they entered one of the rooms as the system warned them about detected Geth in the other room as they took cover right away as the first geth trooper walked in. Yadrell opened fire as the las bolt tore through its armor with ease. More geth soon followed in afterwards as Adam opened fire as the new rounds quickly tore through its shields and armor much faster than his old weapons would have as Winter focused on overloading the geth shields before she fired a few shots from her pistol at them. One of the geth uncloaked and prepared to use its flamethrower on Yadrell. He quickly responded by switching to his staff and impaling it into the geth's head and switched to his las pistol as he used the geth as a body shield as he took out a couple of geth with a few well-placed shots forcing them back to the tram. The few that had fallen back had tried to reinforce their position with fallen tables and pieces of cover as they gathered together only for Yadrell to open his hand and release a barrage of energy bolts which tore them apart with most of the walls around them.

Yadrell stepped inside of the tram and said "What are you waiting for?"

Winter looked at Adam in disbelief as he said "It looks like some of his skills haven't dulled over apparently."

It didn't take long for the Tram to reach the dish as the wide open catwalks were a disadvantage for the geth as Yadrell went over to one of the walkways and started sniping them before they could get into reach leaving the path clear for them as Adam stayed close to Winter in case they had any other cloaked geth lying in wait. She quickly extended the catwalk leading to the dish as Adam motioned Yadrell to come join them as they would have to continue their into the building as the geth would be trying to readjust their tactics. It was a matter of time before they got use to the new weapons and instead of relying on their shields to protect them so they had to act quickly.

Adam pulled out his shotgun and said "We run and try to rush our way to the dish before they figure out a way to deal with the new weapons. Yadrell… could you switch to close combat?"

Yadrell simply nodded as he placed away his staff and started to chant under his breath. By the time the walkway had extended a sword made out of energy that none of the omni tools could register. The blade seemed to crackle a little as Yadrell tested it on one of the geth bodies as the blade cut clean through it.

He looked at Adam and said "How well do the shields hold up against their weapons. They were not using regular bullets."

Adam smiled as he said "The shields still work against their weapons and we will give you cover. Just try to keep the mind blasts to a minim as we need to get to the top of this place."

Yadrell sighed as he held out the blade and said "Having to rely on a psyker for close combat… What has the galaxy become?"

Winter continued to try to scan the weapons as she said "A much more interesting place. How does it?"

Adam interrupted her "Don't try to think too hard about it. Anyway the path is clear so let's bag us a few geth!"

Adam stood beside the door and opened it as no one stood in front of it as a barrage of bullets tore through the door as it started to open. The geth had opened fire and continued to focus on the doorway before anyone could go through it. At first it seemed like a foolish plan until they remembered that the geth just had to buy time for the upload to be finished. Adam pulled out a grenade and tossed it inside the room as it exploded.

At that moment Yadrell faced the wall and unleashed a psychic blast making a new entrance as he dashed inside before they could react as Adam and Winter rushed in after him. The ones on the ground level didn't last long yet the barrage of bullets kept coming from the upper levels forcing them to take cover. While a single bullet wouldn't do much damage they didn't want to test how many it took to pierce the armor.

"Frak!" Yadrell shouted as a Geth hunter uncloaked and grabbed him. The geth refocused their fire as two of them pulled out rocket launchers as they took aim.

Adam ran to his position ignoring the gunfire and kept firing at the geth hunter before it fell allowing Yadrell to take cover as the rockets hit where he was standing. A grinding sound came above them as part of the walkway came crashing down on top of them. Yadrell ran towards Adam's position as the walkway crashed down near him. Above them the geth were starting to dismantle the walkway to prevent them from getting up.

Yadrell pulled out his las long and said "Frakers learn quick don't they?"

Adam noticed the shimmer in the air and fired damaging another geth hunter shouting "A little too fast for my liking. I've never seen them act this way before!"

Winter hid behind her piece of cover as she was trying to set something up and spoke calmly into the vox system "Their normal weapons can barely scratch the armor so their only option is to use unconventional tactics."

Yadrell took a deep breath and said "I can stop the ones above us dropping more pieces of the catwalk if someone can take care of those dam rockets."

Winter shouted "Deploying turret!"

She threw a small object near the geth as it opened up into a miniature turret. An electric blast erupted from it disabling the geth shields before it opened fire and started to mow them down. Yadrell smiled as he fired a few rounds into the geth above them as Adam kept the lower levels clear of any runners or possible cloaked geth lying in wait. It was a stressful moment that seemed to stretch on a lot longer than it actually was, but soon the geth were wiped out leaving most of the area clear expect for a few damaged pieces of the walkway leading to the upper levels.

Adam took a couple of deep breaths as he reloaded his shotgun as his arm was sore due to the recoil despite the added protection of the armor. Winter moved over to the turret and had it collapse back into its compact form muttering about hull damage while Yadrell simply shook his head in disappointment at the sections of the walkway missing.

He pulled out a small hook from his suit and said "Anyone have a good throwing arm?"

Winter walked over and held onto the hook and said "Your plan to get up there is to climb? I can get it up there, but how do you plan to get us up there?"

Yadrell simply shrugged as he checked how many shots he had left and said "I tie it to something and lower the hook or try to advance on my own. Hey Adam… Check if you have one installed into your suit." Adam fumbled around the suit until a similar one came up "That's one extra pair of hands on the upper level."

Winter sighed as she gave the hook a few twirls as it landed in one of the holes in the catwalk above them. Yadrell gave it a few hard tugs before he started to pull himself up. Adam took a few tries before his managed to get a good grip and began to climb up himself. Once they both reached the top they lowed their hooks down to the bottom and helped pull Winter up to their level before they continued on.

Archer contacted them as they got outside "You need destroy the struts now. They have their own capacitors. Try blowing them up."

Yadrell smiled as Adam pointed at each of them as a barrage of energy blasts tore through them. Pieces of debris fell from the sky as due to the damage. The entire place was starting to fall apart as the ground was starting to give away underneath them.

Adam moaned as he said with regret "You've got to be kidding me. Run!"

They ran as it started to collapse as they jumped over the edge onto the catwalk. Adam and Winter made it as Yadrell missed as he managed to grab onto the catwalk. Both of them turned around and started to pull him up as the entire dish started to fall apart. By the time it had finished collapsing they had managed to pull him up as Yadrell laid on the walkway taking a few deep breaths.

He chuckled as he said "We tried to not blow the entire place up onto to have it fall apart. By the warp I miss Imperium teck. At least they don't fall apart at a moment's notice."

Someone came running towards them and shouted "Over here" Dr. Archer came into view.

Winter slowly got up and said "What is going on here?"

Dr. Archer said with disappointment "A Man's reach exceeding his grasp. Come on, I'll explain."

* * *

They stayed and listened to Dr. Archer's explanation on the situation. The more the situation was explained the worse they came to realize how fucked up it actually was. It was only after they left the base did they talk about with each other while waiting to arrive at the next base.

Yadrell shook his head and said "Couldn't expect? Anyone from back home would have left either a dozen charges or at least a trained and ready squad to gun him down at the first moment when he started shooting everyone."

Adam couldn't help but nod as he said "Sadly I have to agree with you, but you have to realize that this was his brother. Maybe he hoped it wouldn't go that far since he volunteered."

Yadrell looked down at the floor as he slowly said "Volunteered… What a funny word. When the inquisition asks you to "volunteer" it is with a gun at your head letting you know what happens if you refuse. When a general "volunteers" he goes to a safe ship away from the battlefield while everyone else gets slaughtered because he knows what is going to happen. Mark my words this "volunteer" and this mess is going to make a lot more sense when we see him."

Winter scanned over her turret and said "So what are you saying. He was forced into this or he willingly accepted this because of the power it would grant him?"

Yadrell shrugged as he said "Like I said. We will know once we see him."

The vehicle lurched as everything was suddenly in freefall before the vehicle hit the ground. Outside they could see that they had just used what looked like a steam vent to rise up to a higher level. Once again they checked their seatbelts and began to regret the minor design flaw. If anything wasn't strapped in it hit the celling and crashed back down on the floor once they landed. The seats and the straps made it much better and safer, but it didn't help alleviate the feeling in their stomachs.

Winter grabbed the turret and strapped it into a chair and said "Well what about the initial project itself? What are you feelings on that considering your culture's impression on AIs?"

Yadrell took a deep breath and said "Considering the war and a similar incident also happened in this universe you can understand our concern, but this project is supposed to have one human mind take control over a bunch of machines with his own mind instead of having them being controlled by AIs. That is kind of similar to what the tech priests do with their machines or at least how it looks to everyone else at least."

The pilot shouted back "I say skip the bots and stick with this teck! The cannons didn't even scratch the paint job as ours took them out in one fucking shot! Hell ya!"

Adam grabbed onto the seat and said "My question is what caused this project to change too quickly. I mean they didn't have much success until after they used his brother. I don't know much about these things, but wouldn't you use more than one person to account for error and success. So that you made sure you didn't get a lucky accident or a small fluke. Why did they have just one person to test all of this?"

Winter took note of this as the vehicle took a few more jumps as they started to approach the base. Each of them were bringing up descent points even if they barely understood the project as she also began to wonder if Dr. Archer had been trying to hid a few secrets from them. Still it didn't matter at the moment as they had arrived at the next site.

They entered the base as the rouge VI tried to send the LOKI mechs at them. Unlike the geth models these were much weaker and barely slowed them down. They took care of what they needed and went back into the vehicle as they continued forward. Their pilot managed to get through without any problems as they reached the next location and entered the building.

Just like before the LOKI mechs barely stood a chance as they were essentially reduced to training dummies as they quickly took out the sentry turrets that tried to defend them. A YMIR mech had stood guard at one of the spots as Yadrell stooped and fumbled around with his weapons and pulled out the bolt pistol he had taken from the chaos space marine as it now held working rounds built for it.

Adam whispered "Are you crazy! It's shields are still up. That thing isn't going to make it!"

Yadrell held the pistol up and said "The bolter from the lictor's stomach was damaged. This one shot a blank round at me head. Now it has real ammo so let's see how well this bit bot takes a bolter round to the head."

Yadrell lined up the shot as the mech turned towards him. The bullet went off as the Mech fell to it's knees and then self-destructed taking out the other mechs around it. Yadrell chuckled as he put the bolt pistol back into its holster.

He looked at them and said with pride "That's a fully working bolter using a fully working round. The exploding bit came from the robot…"

Winter shook her head in disbelief "Because that self-destruct when you shoot their head off. I'll make a note to put more people on the bolter project though I still say the las and plasma weapon projects are more important despite its success."

Yadrell nodded as he switched to the las pistol as they took out the few remaining mech before they activated the lockdown of vulcan station. Once they did it the VI appeared again on the screens and made it's bit of noise. They ignored it as they took the data records from the station and tried to get a better picture on what had happened before they proceeded to Prometheus Station.

* * *

Purgatory

Time had passed for the cultist as each of the aligned ones knew they knew something was blocking their gifts and powers. None of them simply thought that it the powers were gone simply because their gods had no power in this universe. They simply thought the prison had some sort of technology or sorcery that blocked it in some way.

They were now forced to gather and try to work together to escape the prison and this prison was much more lax than the imperial counterparts. Letting prisoners out of their cells as some of the guards made bets with fights and even sold some of them to other groups. So they all went with their skills to slowly work together. The follower of Khorne kept joining in the fights and beating people up. This kept the guards to continue letting him out of the cell to place more illegal bets on him. The follower of Slaanesh focused on their languages and managed to get an implant from one of the guards so that she could understand them as she continued to seduce the guards to let them "stay" and help give the Tzeetch follower his needed materials for the rituals.

The Tzeetch follower went to work with the paints and materials slowly spreading the corruption as he hid the marks under a light coat of paint to keep them from finding out and getting them ready. The follower of Nergal was building plagues as a few of them were starting to affect the xenos guards. It was taking some time to adapt it to the xenos biology, but it would keep the xenos infected and keep them from being infected by the same plague.

The last two cultists were unaligned. The first one was trying to help with the supplies and marking the rituals, but mostly he was trying to keep some of his mutations secret from the rest. Somehow he had managed to keep his blessings while the others hadn't. The other was a psyker who also kept his blessing and had used his powers to look into the present and the past. The few who had been sold and shipped off were immediately killed by "freak accidents" caused by a powerful daemon. Another showed that a prison breakout would happen soon as the daemon was trying to keep them their until the incident. So the psyker kept quiet and tried to convince them to stay and prepare as he kept his connection with the warp secret. He planned to sacrifice them to escape since they lacked their blessings as he used his sight to help acquire and lead the group covertly. He was worried about the prison break since he could tell that they were not the ones making it.

* * *

The geth ship seemed empty. The key word _seemed_ empty as they walked through it as past traumatic memories had started to play back in Yadrell's mind. The same thing had been said about the space hulk. Sure there were orks, nids, and at least a dozen other killer monster lying about they said none of them were nearby. They find what they were looking for and then they came pouring out of the woodworks. Sure he had armor and the person in command managed to get a suit of power armor to protect themselves while the enemy didn't even have any weapons, but it didn't matter. They swarmed in numbers overwhelming most of them. Anyone knocked down as torn apart as the swarm clawed their way slowly scratching the armor to bits and managing to tear off a few pieces from them before they beat their heads in.

Now it was the same thing again. A geth ship that was supposed to be empty as the VI had taken control of them in tight corridors. They had superior armor and weapons, but without all that nice spacious area to shoot them and ensure they simply couldn't swarm you with numbers.

Adam looked at Yadrell and said "You look a little bit nerves Yadrell. Claustrophobic?"

He couldn't help but shiver as he said "Just a few bad memories in supposedly abandoned alien ships alright. Do me a favor and keep that shotgun ready."

Winter accessed one of the recordings and said "Just relax. We know what we are doing."

The report played "Lanigan just ran a simulation – if these geth ever wake up there's a 98% chance we'll be dead within two minutes."

Yadrell looked at her and sarcastically said "And that makes me feel a whole lot better."

The report continued "I'm starting to hate Lanigan."

Winter muttered under breath "So am I."

They slowly continued down the ship as the camera's kept watching them as they salvaged the research materials and data. As they continued the messages started to change. A couple were Lanigan being a complete ass including the Halloween incident as Yadrell swore that if Lanigan had managed to survive he would personally shoot the idiot himself. Funny enough it was these messages that gave them something to look forward to and kept their minds off the empty ship.

The twitching cameras were blamed on their previous programing as it started to make sense that the geth were properly sent somewhere else. The three of them started to talk about work and some minor workspace mishaps as everything started to seem okay. Then the logs arrived to the point where the VI had started to take over. The messages slowly went on from there as they already knew the dreaded ending, but hearing it from the logs inside the ship made it much worse and terrifying to them.

Yadrell rubbed his head after the last one where they were talking about being herded somewhere as they had a good idea what was awaiting them at the end. Winter tried to make it look like it wasn't getting to her, but her hand kept a tight grasp on the pistol as the turret was ready to be deployed at any second. Adam kept scanning the hallways as he started to feel the same fear that had approached him when he had encountered the Nids as now had a slight idea of what Yadrell feared.

Adam spoke out loud "Everyone feeling alright?"

Yadrell shook his head and said "Headaches a little bit other than that I'm alright."

Winter quickly turned to Yadrell and said "Is there something wrong with the implant?"

Yadrell simply shrugged as he said "I don't know. It started after the last recording said _Make it stop._ Honestly it feels like a bad hangover."

Adam looked at Winter with mixed fear and confusion as she shook her head letting him know that she also didn't hear that line from the recording. Adam quickly pulled out a spare medigel pack and kept it on hand in case something did happen. What a pack of medigel could do for a short circuiting implant he had no idea, but then again in his profession applying a dose was used to fix any and every problem that came up.

Soon they encountered the room where the lockdown computer was and after a few changes they had managed to arrive and activate the lockdown. The VI appeared and screeched as the inactive geth believed to be dead or destroyed during the fighting suddenly turned on. Yadrell opened fire destroying the geth as he quickly turned to look at the doorway waiting to see if more would appear. Winter finished the procedure as she downloaded the rest of the logs before they moved on.

Adam tried to smile as he said "Well hopefully there won't be that many geth around. Besides we have survived worse." The ship shook for a moment "And now we run like hell."

Yadrell dashed past them as he switched to his las pistol as Adam and Winter tried to catch up. A few shots had been fired as Yadrell had destroyed them all and had started taking a copy of each weapons and strapped it to his armor. Adam didn't say anything as he recognized Yadrell's peculiar habit of taking any weapons he could find when stressed in an attempt to ensure he never ran out of ammo or weapons to use. Winter moved past him as she looked out the next hallway as more geth opened fire.

The system went off saying "Attention. This is a geth stasis alert. Neural activity detected in nodes 1 through 6."

Adam shouted in response "Permission to go heavy now."

Winter shouted in confusion "Sure!" as over a dozen geth had started to move in closer to them.

Yadrell released an energy blast which tore through most of them as Adam switched to his biotic abilities as he put his training to use. When they were out in the open Yadrell cleared them out with psychic attacks while Adam sent the ones behind cover away from it with a shockwave or a biotic pull leaving them clear to be shot out with their riffles. It didn't take long for them to clear out the room as it would have taken a couple of minutes the regular way, but the room was badly damaged as chunks of the walls and floor were missing as if they had switched to using rockets.

The geth were pushed back as Yadrell picked up a rocket launcher and tossed it to Winter shouting "Fire that down the hallway when the door opens!"

She didn't know why, but as soon as the door opened as a couple of geth primes could be seen she did what she was told. The blast had managed to take out their shields as Adam switched to a biotic crush as Yadrell tossed a grenade leaving an explosive result. They started to move faster together not bothering to talk as they fell into their training.

The system went off again "Warning. Geth nodes 20 through 35 are now active. Emergency action required."

They managed to make it near the entrance of the ship as dozens of geth filled the room. Adam and Yadrell split up to take care of the ramps that lead up to their level leaving Winter to take cover in the middle. They held them off with the explosive Yadrell had been scouring as Winter reactivated the turret as set it to go after the geth primes. One of the hunters appeared behind her and activated it's flamethrower as the shield were taken out as the imperial guard armor did protector, but the heat was quickly rising as another one uncloaked. She switched to a cryo blast and fired in pointblank at the ground freezing them all as her armor cooled down as sweat dripped from her face. She quickly switched to the las gun and fired a few rounds into their head before they could react.

She turned around to look down as the last geth prime had been destroyed as Yadrell and Adam opened the outside door. She quickly jumped down and ran towards the vehicle as Yadrell and Adam opened fire behind her as more geth were coming. Once they got outside the vehicle's door opened as the vehicle itself opened fire on the doorway destroying anything that might have been attempting to follow them along with a descent section of the doorway itself.

They jumped inside and drove away as Adam couldn't help but chuckle as he said "See… it wasn't" Adam took a deep breath "It wasn't too bad. Just one place left."

* * *

Everyone prepared for the next station and final battle with the rouge VI. Winter pulled up a sheet to give herself some privacy as she had everyone else look away while she changed into a spare suit of armor as she didn't want to test the current one's durability after being rapidly heated and then cooled in a short period of time in another fire fight. Adam helped Yadrell sort through the weapons as they mostly separated the explosive from the rest of the weapons and restocked their supply of grenades.

Once finished they strapped themselves back down and as they were driven to the site while Winter scanned Yadrell to see if his translator implant was causing any problems. She looked at the scans in confusion as they were different than what she had been expecting.

She sighed in disappointment and said "The implant is working for the most part. It's just his natural talent for languages are going faster than the implant itself."

Adam looked at her in confusion and said "So it's trying to catch up to him? What languages is it trying to find?"

Winter pointed at the geth weapons and said "My guess would be the geth. To us it's gibberish. To him it's a language and his mind is starting to pick out a few words. The implant doesn't know the language and is trying to catch up, record, analyze, along with a dozen other different things that it was starting to overheat in a sense."

Yadrell groaned as he slowly said "Please tell me I do not have a frag grenade in my head."

She smiled as she replied "Nothing that deadly, but the worst you will properly experience is more headaches or worst case scenario you implant turns off. You could talk to Adam without the implant and you could properly understand what I'm saying, but other than that even if it goes off there shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"Too much of a problem?" Adam repeated with unease.

She took a deep breath and said "We are going into a fire fight. The worst that could happen is that I shout something and he doesn't understand what I am saying. That is the problem I am referring to besides the extra hours that will be required to help fix the implant's overheating problem."

Everyone relaxed as they knew it was no longer a danger that could potentially end his life through a piece of faulty hardware. Winter took notes as she tried to gather the information together as Adam just shut his eyes and tried to think about the current situation.

Something was wrong here as it was becoming more obvious with each passing second. The recordings didn't seem to match up with the story they were being feed. Only having one test subject didn't make much sense either. Then there was Yadrell's translation. Miss Winters claimed it was the geth, but he only said it after listening to a recording that had the VI's voice which kept making it's noise to them during this mission. Alone it didn't seem much or could be counted as simple mistakes or could be easily explained, but how they kept piling up had started to bother him more and more. The vehicle slowed down as the doors opened letting him know that he didn't have any more time to think about it.

* * *

The hallway was devoid of life as a couple of corpses laid on the ground. The cameras focused on their position as both sides knew this would be the final confrontation. The door slowly opened them as if greeting them as a guest or as a welcomed challenge.

Dr. Archer voice barely came though as he said "Looks like you're in. Good. I'm getting some troubling readings here, though." Panic suddenly filled his voice "The VI is trying to upload its program directly from your location. Get to the server room and shut down the core before it can—"

Static played over the end of the message as his voice was cut off. Then one of the machines suddenly turned active playing back an old recording.

Archer's voice came as he said with annoyance "Archer's log 1552.2: For Years, my brother's condition has been a handicap." A sudden hint of joy came in "That changed today. His autistic mind is the breakthrough I've been looking for – he can communicate with the geth! Such a tremendous grasp of mathematics! It seems serendipity is alive and well in the 22nd century."

"And now things have gotten much worse" Yadrell slowly said "Get ready for the worst."

Winter looked at Yadrell and said "So you now know if his brother was forced or he willing volunteered?"

Yadrell shook his head and said "This is far worse. This is a tortured soul given power. Innocent or guilty the rage and madness has just broken through as he are in his home." The doors shut behind them and sealed shut as a new door opened.

Adam looked into the empty hallway and said "You think this could be worse than the geth ship?"

Yadrell tried to smile as he said "Not as obvious, but just as dangerous. Here he has full control over everything inside."

Adam tried to open one of the doors only for another door to open up instead. He pulled out his shotgun and opened fired at the door only for wires to fall onto the door as electricity sparked against it as the wires danced around across the floor near the sealed door as the opened door was left completely open.

Winter shivered as she said "Then let's not leave our host waiting. He obviously has out route planned for us."

They continued down the path the doors changed randomly leading them in circles until they reached a room as a new machine just turned active as a recording starting to play.

Archer's voice came through "Archer log 157.8: Unless he sees results, the Illusive Man is shutting us down next week. I have no choice. I'm going to tap David directly into the geth neural network and see if he can influence them." A hint of joy and denial filled his voice "The danger should be negligible. David might even enjoy it."

Adam shut his eyes as he slowly said "I guess that explains why there was only one test subject, but to do it to your own brother just to test some random project?"

Winter shook her head in disappointment as she said "The project was coming to an end. Cerberus wasn't getting any results from this endeavor and there were plenty of other projects and tasks that needed to be done. Heck I have been transferred to three different projects and had even been in two that didn't get any results, but The Illusive Man didn't just through fire me as he just moved me onto the next assignment. What he is saying doesn't make any sense."

Yadrell pulled out his long las and aimed it at the elevators saying "Logic doesn't matter much when you deal with someone's pride. It is one of the reasons why even smart people manage to do such stupid things. It is because they believe that they are right while everyone else is wrong. He wasn't some assistant or transferred personal. He was put in charge of this project and it had failed. Pride was the first mistake that led to this mess. Fear of what happened if he failed was the second mistake."

Winter pushed the elevator button as the elevator started to come up before it fell back down and started to run into some errors. She quickly moved back as it started changing destinations until it had arrived to their level. The doors opened up as the VI howled in anger as geth came out of the elevator. It didn't take long to take them out as they focused their fire into the small compartment taking the geth out. The elevator stayed on their level as the door behind them locked itself shut.

None of them spoke as they stepped into the elevator only for the doors to shut behind them. It slowly went down only for it to started quickly rising up and down as they had to flatten themselves unless they wanted to be crushed into the celling before it suddenly went into a free fall and landed at a opened door. The door opened up revealing geth as they opened fire only to notice after the geth fell that these geth were inactive as they were in their geth storage units or what every the geth actually used them for, but it didn't really matter as they took out the inactive geth just to be safe as another log started to play.

Archer spoke "Archer log 168.4: I'd be lying if I said no harm could come to David."

The log cut off as the next door open. They went into the hallway to press the switch only for the door to seal as the image of the program that allowed the door to open appeared on the hallway wall and slowly moved over as if mocking them towards another door as the bits of static almost seemed like laughter to them. Wither it was the stress making them think it or the VI laughing at them as it enjoyed the moment they didn't really know.

A computer was in the room. Winter went over to it and tried to press the needed commands only for it to suddenly turn off every time she went to press the buttons. She switch to her omni tool and started to force the computer to stay active as Adam guarded the doorway with his shotgun leaving Yadrell to press the button.

She smiled as she slowly said "Now you can't do that little trick anymore. Push the button and get ready for what happens next."

Yadrell pushed the button as a sudden surge of electricity stuck him as the VI's face suddenly appeared as it flared across the computer screen. Noise filled his ears as his mind tried to make sense of it as sudden flashed of the past started to appear of the place. He slowly fell out of the room as the doors sealed behind him as Adam and Miss Winter shouted as they tried to force the door open, but Yadrell could no longer hear them. Instead his screen started to mix with his visions as he saw three people walking through the sealed door as it was now open.

Yadrell tried to get up as he walked through the hallway as the door sealed itself behind him. Static started to screech as it slowly changed into words as Yadrell's head felt like it was on fire. Parts of his vision revealed images of the past as geth walked around the building. His eyes said he wasn't seeing anything yet the screen and his visions showed something else. Yadrell clawed at the helmet as the pain increased. The device in his head was attempting to force his mind to be able to see these events somehow. One of the rooms showed Dr. Archer along with someone sitting on the floor.

The stranger spoke "Square root of 906.01 is 30.1… square root of 912.04 is 30.2…"

Archer ignore him and said "Time on this project is running out. There are no options left. How to get the geth's attention?"

The Geth made there static speech as then the stranger stood up and copied their language in an instant as the geth rose up from their inactive state.

The Stranger said in simple joy "The Robot says hello."

Archer said in fascination "Eureka. David, you're a miracle worker."

Yadrell slowly muttered "And that was your first mistake David. You let him know you could do that."

A sudden surge stuck Yadrell as he screamed in pain as his vison flickered around until it focused on the next scene. Archer and David stood in the room together only this time Archer was calm while David was nerves as he kept repeating numbers out loud.

Archer spoke "David, can you repeat my notes from Thursday's experiment?" David continued to repeat the numbers in fear "David! Please pay attention!"

David spoke nervously "Loud! It's getting loud in here."

Yadrell gritted his teeth as he said "You have no idea how loud it can possibly get."

Archer continued "I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that. Would you mind repeating my notes from Thursday's experiment?"

Like some tech priest or servitor David repeated "Log 137.3. The experiment yielded no discernible patterns of geth obedience. End dictation now, David. Hell, the Illusive Man will have my head for this."

Archer slowly to David as if he was some pet that managed to repeat a trick and said "Thank you. And how are you feeling today?"

David responded "Square root of 924 is 30.4… earplugs would be good."

Yadrell tried to force himself up off the floor as the geth stopped walking around and turned to face him as if noticing him for the first time. The vision changed again as geth now hung in the room as other people stood around to collect reports and report Archer's good progress.

Archer spoke "David, I want you to order the geth to take a step forward."

David mimicked the geth language as the geth did what he asked.

The lab tech spoke in surprise "How does he do it?"

Archer spoke with confidence as he said "David is a mathematical savant. His autistic mind can interpret the geth language at its most basic form and mimic their phonetics. With his photographic memory, cross-referencing the meaning is a snap. He's literally a human computer."

The lab tech continued "And you think he can interface with the geth's neural network."

Archer quickly responded "I do."

The engineer spoke with doubt and fear in his voice as he voiced his concern "Is that even safe, Doctor?"

Archer said with ease as if the task was as simple as riding a bike and said "I see no harm in finding out."

Yadrell laughed as he shouted back "Turns out it did! This is what you're trying to show me? Trying to make me feel sorry for you? You have no idea of what I have seen… AHH!"

Visions of Yadrell's own past flickered our as it showed wars, battles, and his operations of the rogue trader vessel. Then it showed the dark deeds done be a commissar and the people from the small community as they responded to an innocent person who turned out to be a psyker. Then it showed what Yadrell had done to the village which made the psyker's painful death seem like a blessing.

The geth turned to face him as Yadrell switched to his weapon and fired at them only for the las shots to go through them. Their weapons on the other hand now stroke him as pain shot through his body as his armor no longer protected him. Yadrell switched his target to the machine they were near and fired it at as the blast destroyed the geth nearby. The pain in his head subsided a little.

Yadrell walked out of the room as David's face appeared pixelated on the wall as he shouted "Make… It… Stop!"

Yadrell held onto his riffle and responded "I think I have an idea on what is going on."

He entered the next room as the elevator started to open as geth appeared. Yadrell switched to his mental powers as these attacks did harm the geth as they tore them apart. Yadrell fired another blast tearing through the elevator floor as he jumped through the hole. The implant sent another jolt of pain through his head as now a large green ball stood in the middle of the room as a scene from the past was being played again. David recited numbers again in fear as he went quicker as his fear grew stronger. Archer ignored him as he continued his experiment.

Archer spoke with ease as if ready to declare his protect a success as he said "We're ready. Open a connection to the geth network."

David's voice now became mechanical as he shouted "Quite!" as the machines sparked around.

Archer shouted "David, no! Tell the geth to stand down!"

David shouted "QUIET PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"

Yadrell put his riffle away as he flexed out his hand as a sword made from the warp appeared in his hands. His eyes and hands let him know that it wasn't actually in his hands, but his mind as the tug of the warp confirmed that it was with him here.

The system announcement spoke "Attempting establish upload link."

"Not today" Yadrell said with glee as he focused all the rage he was feeling from the pain in his head "I still have a few tricks to play!"

The blast struck the VI core as David howled in agony. Geth flooded the room in an attempt to stop him as shields went up as the pieces of the shields connected with the towers in the room. Yadrell laughed as he let himself free and unleashed his carnage. The used his sword to cut through the geth as he fired more blasts at the towers bringing down the shields. David tried to make the upload again only to be stuck by another blast forcing the shields back up again. The geth came again in bigger forces as Yadrell started using more of his powers. Chains ripped out of the floor and impaled themselves into the larger geth leaving them helpless as he chopped of their heads. A few of them tried to fire at him causing him some pain, but it was nothing to the countless hours of torture he had experienced during his time with chaos. In truth he didn't even notice it that much since it didn't hinder his movements.

By the third time when the geth came again in larger numbers Yadrell hid as he started his chant as he focused on the pain and agony. It filled him with power as each bit of agony he drew on filled him with pleasure far stronger than any narcotic could make (or that he saw from the expressions of other people that didn't involve them dying) as he focused. Lightening stuck out of his hands tearing apart the larger ones as the other smaller versions tried to overwhelm him. Yadrell laughed as sent a blast into the ground which erupted around him tearing apart the smaller geth. The array of spells continued as they tore apart the geth until none of them were left.

Yadrell tore them apart until he was left along with David as he positioned himself for the final blow. He smiled as he summoned the sword again and drove it straight into the sphere as he slowly cracked it open as reality slowly started to reappear. The image disappeared as Yadrell turned around as he saw one damaged geth had appeared.

The geth slowly spoke "We were just trying to help him…" as the light went out.

Yadrell turned around and looked at David in disappointment. He stood hung in the middle of the air naked as the few pieces of machines covered parts of his body. The rest of it was implanted into him as wires were plugged into his body and through his mouth. His eyes were forced open as bits of metal were driving into his flesh. If Yadrell was a tech priest he would have torn the machine apart claiming it heresy, but for some reason it just filled him with disappointment.

David's eyes flickered as the machine voice spoke "Quite- please make it stop."

Yadrell walked up to it as he looked at David. The great threat against the universe and dangerous rouge VI. Held helplessly in the device.

Archer shouted behind him "Wait! Commander!" He looked at Yadrell in fear "I'm begging you. Don't do anything rash."

Yadrell shook his head "I think making your brother into an experiment makes you already past that point."

Archer tried to respond "I know how this must look, but I never intended any harm to come to him. You must believe me."

Yadrell laughed "Really? I've hear the same thing before plenty of times before."

Archer looked at his brother in grief and said "It's not like I planned this. It was an accident. Seeing David communicate with the geth… it all seemed harmless."

Yadrell stepped behind Archer and said "And before you knew it, you summoned your very own daemon. The joy you must have felt knowing your project worked."

Archer shouted back in anger "I had no choice! The demands were incredible. The Illusive Man doesn't broker failure!" He stepped away from Yadrell as he tried to justify his actions "Any war we fight with the geth will be bloody. I was asked to find a way to avoid that."

Yadrell walked over and picked up his long las and said "And just how many people had already died for this project? How much torture did you deem to be acceptable for such a _noble endeavor_ Mr. Archer?"

Archer looked down at the floor as he couldn't say it to his face and said "More souls than will ever forgive me. But I won't apologize for radical ideas. If my work spares a million mothers mourning the loss of a million sons, my conscience will rest easy."

Yadrell grabbed Archer and pointed him towards David and whispered "Look at him instead of me. He will never be the same. Those under you died quick as they knew the possible risks. You just strapped him in it without a care."

Archer spoke "The Damage may not be permanent. He might recover some semblance of his mind"

Adam shouted "And this is what you expected to give to Cerberus! You turned your own brother into a lab rat! What kind of life is that!"

Yadrell turned around as he saw Adam and Winter coming down. Winter looked at David in shock and horror as tears formed in her eyes at the atrocity that had been committed in Cerberus's name. Adam looked at Archer in rage as he pulled out his shot gun ready for the order to kill the scum on sight.

Archer looked back at Adam and said "But a well-cared for lab rat. At least he'd be alive."

Yadrell walked closer to Adam and said "So you are just sacrificing his own brother just for a pinch of success. Well more of a fluke anyway. You must be _so_ happy."

Archer was about to say something until he saw David crying as he was forced to face the horror he had created with his own two eyes instead of hiding behind screens and documents.

Tears ran down David's eyes as he said "Square root of 906.01 equals…"

"30.1" Archer said with regret. "What I've done to David is unethical. If he dies, it's unforgivable. Let me take care of him please."

"You have to be insane to think we would leave him with you!" Adam shouted.

"Adam!" Yadrell shouted as Adam went quite "We are taking David with us. We came to check on the site now let's finish the job."

Adam smiled as he came over with Winter to free David from his cage.

Archer shouted as he pulled out a gun "No! Leave him! He's too valuable!"

Yadrell smiled as he snapped his fingers as pieces of machinery that held David now flew at him and tore into his arms and legs. Blood flowed onto the floor as Yadrell walked over with ease and pulled the gun from Archer's bloody hands.

Yadrell couldn't help but nod as he said "Well he certainly is much too valuable to be left with you. With some proper help he could be helped through this situation and live a normal productive life. Leaving him with you to play your little experiment is a waste of his life."

Archer grunted as he tried to fight through the pain he was now feeling and said "Where will you take him?"

Adam quickly chipped in and said "Grissom Academy. They can help special cases like David. Without the torture of course."

Yadrell nodded as he simply said "Sounds as good as a place as anywhere, but here to me. Miss Winter… If you could contact the Academy Adam said and let them know that we have someone who needs their help."

Winter smiled as she said "Of course commander."

Archer slowly spoke under his breath as he said "It all seemed harmless."

Adam and Winter took David out of the room as Yadrell snapped his fingers as the room started to shake. The exit was sealed as the room started to twist into a dark version of itself. Yadrell smiled as the blood began to scratch into the floor as the other dead human bodies began to drain of blood as it soon surrounded the machine Archer had built as the blood formed the star of chaos.

Archer shouted in fear as the machine slowly started to pull him in "What are you doing! What the hell is going on!" His eyes widened as the sharp spikes that held David's arms now cranked open with blood still dripping as it moved to fit someone of Archer's build now.

Yadrell pulled out his staff and twirled it around for a moment before he slammed in into the ground. Darkness poured out of it as the machines now started to spring to life as power was restored. The broken pieces now started to reform and turn black as things started to appear just out of his sight as they seemed to be drawn to the unnatural power Yadrell was now wielding.

Yadrell smiled as he walked near the machine and said "I'm going to test your machine now. You wanted something that could stop the geth by controlling their metal puppets. Something to spare those million mothers and daughters I believe?"

Archer shouted in panic as the machine started to clamp down on him "I need David to do this!"

Yadrell laughed as he finally found the words he had been looking for as he said them out loud "I didn't see your project as some cruel and inhuman thing like all of the others did. Hell the imperium sacrifices about ten thousand psykers per day to keep their little map for warp travel working. I just saw this whole thing as… Inefficient."

Archer opened his mouth to say something yet none of the words came out. Cruel, evil, a crime against god possibly, but not inefficient. Yet in his very soul if Archer had one he somehow knew that was exactly what Yadrell had meant. Archer saw his actions as a necessary evil that racked his mind with guilt. The man in front of him simply thought he was thinking too… small which somehow made him even more frightened than before. The tubes suddenly shot into his mouth as they started to connect as now his screaming came from the machine.

Yadrell chuckled as he walked over to the computers and said "You placed all of this on a single person. What would have happened if David died? You would have a worthless machine with no spare parts. By the warp the geth nearly helped David escape by separating his mind from the tortured body you gave him. You project was doomed from the start so I'm going to cheat a little and see if your project had any chance at succeeding."

The world changed as bits of sparks and pixels came again. As the geth looked at him as they tried to figure out what he was doing. Yadrell turned on the machine as Archer started to scream in agony.

Yadrell looked at the geth and said "Well here is the person responsible for this mess. Do me a favor and help me see what would have happened if David was left in his care."

The geth mumbled to each other for a few seconds before they agreed.

Archer screamed "The noise. It's so loud! Make it stop! Make it stop!"

The geth gathered around the machine as Yadrell said "But your suffering will benefit all those souls you wanted to save or is it that your just prefer other people having to suffer instead of you?"

Yadrell looked into the future as he saw the project turning even more brutal. The geth reacted as digital copies of the machine were slowly outlining where the new additions would be added. The floor started to twist as pieces broke off infused with the warp as they merged with the machine. Archer kept screaming as it went deeper and as he was forced to see what he would have done. It continued until he's screaming stopped as he had finally died. Yadrell shook his head as he walked away from the machine. Archer truly was a failure compared to his brother. At least David would have lasted longer than Archer did.

The vision disappeared along with all of the geth except for the one geth body on the floor. It lighted up again as it stared at Yadrell. Adam walked into the room as he had managed to break his way inside and looked at the machine in new horror as Archer was now in it. The machine had changed and had grown even worse, but Adam couldn't help but wonder if it was a blessing that Archer had died instead of being alive in such a monstrosity.

The geth spoke "You are a demon."

Yadrell smiled as he said "Aren't we all?"

The geth continued "We had to check to see if he would have succeeded, you did it for fun."

The geth unit turned off as Adam said "What did it say?"

Yadrell look at Adam in confusion and said "You didn't hear?"

Adam looked at the geth and said "According to Cerberus scientist the geth can talk to each other someone around the speed of light. The fact you were able to hear a single sentence instead of a dozen different ones meant they all agreed on saying one thing. So what was it?"

Yadrell turned his back on the geth and lied "They said they were trying to help. That's all. Also it looks like my decision was correct. Leaving David with Archer would have been a waste."

Adam looked at the machine with new horror as he said "Is that was that thing is!"

Yadrell nodded "Except Archer was in the seat instead of David. Even if you could get a replacement for David to make the machine work it would still be a bust. Let's leave this mess and go back to the ship. Hopefully we can salvage some of this mess to be used for the imperial hybridization projects."

Adam couldn't help but shiver as he said "And Adam?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "He will do fine at your academy."

Adam shook his head as he said "After all of this you think he will come out just fine?"

Yadrell tapped his helmet and said "I can see the future remember? I can't tell what his entire future is but I can at least promise he will come out alright from this mess. Does that make you feel better?"

Adam nodded as he said "Honestly it does. Still what makes you think anything of value is left in this project. I mean even saw this project is a complete bust."

Yadrell smiled as he simply said "Different perspectives for one thing. Archer wanted to control the geth. I want to control the hardware. There are millions of geth in the software aspect as they would overwhelm a mind. The units or "Geth" you see on the floor. Those are just units used to help them get around, but otherwise they are empty husks if the geth AIs are not in them. Besides the Tech priest managed to succeed at my project so we at least know it can be done."

Adam took one last look at the room and said "And what you did in that room?"

Yadrell shrugged as he said "Let's just say that I may need a new implant."

Adam knew that Yadrell was dogging the question, but didn't bother asking it again. Yadrell had a few secrets that he liked to keep secret for now and for some reason Adam had agreed with Yadrell's decision. Archer had did all of that to his own brother and if he even managed to get his hands on David again this would have happened to David. Now Archer would never be able to do it again and Cerberus finally knew the project was a bust which kept David safe even if it did raise a few questions about Yadrell's abilities. Adam guessed he could live with that.


	7. Chapter 7

**Warp Effect ch7**

_Author note – I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop_

_Few notes and warnings for the reader. Yes it may seem like I am changing the time line little bit, but expect that to happen as there are a few other things affect this universe during the time Shep being brought back than in the game. Also I know I may get a little bit of rage for this but Star Child is in this chapter. No one really liked the little brat for screwing up our ending in Mass Effect 3 and yes there are "reasons" for why the brat was "in charge" or making the "reasons" for the reaper actions. I properly through a bit of that out the window. So if you have any thoughts about the changes I had made or any suggestions about what the reapers should have been before they got replaced with Star Brat... I mean Star Child then send me a message. Personally I kind of found it weird that the collectors were under direct control of Harbinger and he didn't bother using the collectors to just flip the switch on the Citadel or try to help Sovereign out when he attacked the Citadel. Sure that made a nice surprise when you find out they were under the control of the biggest reaper. It still didn't seem to make much sense in the grand scheme to me considering that Sovereign tried something sort of similar with Saren as he even took direct control of the body to help ensure his plan worked._

_Other than that we see a few bits of a shore leave and decision to make a team. Shepherd still seems to get all of the luck and a possible less legal member is offered since they wouldn't exactly be welcomed on Shepherd's team. Remember that Shepherd was essentially the flagship team for the galaxy to see and rally behind (under the control of Cerberus) as most of the crew were not actively anti-alien in a sense or "Evil villains operatives" like you saw in Mass Effect 1 and mostly in Mass Effect 3. So hopefully any Mass Effect viewers will not be mad that I made one up and threw him in as a former Eclipse merc._

_Final notes... Any ideas, points, facts, or possible lore conflicts (40k, Mass Effect, or 40k to Mass Effect) as Mass Effect has a few points within itself (like seeing sword not being really useful to then have a lot of Cerberus soldiers having swords including their cyber ninja) or 40k (With the fluff changes and lore being written, examined, re-examined, and possibly re-written. I mean there was an actual cannon half human half elder space marine with hair! Though now there is a but of arguments on if such a combination could actually by possible much less be allowed to become a space marine. Necrons have had the biggest change from mindless killer robots to having actual personalities and conflicts with each other. Chaos would be a big one as the older books (The ones I am more familiar with) had chaos undivided more as an actual force while current books have them more as unaligned or constantly switching between being aligned to different gods and where daemonettes were made from souls of the elder Slaanesh had kept, devoured, etc. Though the newer ones just have them as Daemons made essentially the same way the other daemons are made from their gods (except for plaguebearers who had a recent fluff that has a couple of them be made from one of Nurgle's wonderful little plagues.)_

_Other than that just remember that this is a work of fiction and I hope you enjoy this chapter while I focus on the next one._

* * *

The report from The Illusive Man showed promise. The ship was being retrofitted to help link up with communications as everyone took the time for shore leave on the station. Things were looking up for them, but Yadrell couldn't help but feel annoyed as he saw the Normandy or the new model in this case. Shepherd had been revived and was investigating some colony that had been just hit by the reapers as they were trying to find any survivors or possibly records of the attack.

Yadrell looked at the ship again and thought to himself. This universe was a strange place as the humans were trying to coexist with the xenos. They had an instance similar to the Iron Men nearly destroying an entire civilization yet the ones he had meet at the lab didn't seem to have that destroy all organic life spark as they tried to help save a tortured human. Then again they did launch a large campaign which caused lots of deaths and worked with an ancient machine that did want to harvest all life in the galaxy or at least it seemed that way to him. So he just kept the Geth not being killing machines a secret as it could be possible that those Geth were different than the ones that waged a war recently against the galaxy. So he walked to the room he was currently assigned to on the station as he tried to line up the facts and get an idea of what had happened during that mission.

He flipped through the extranet as he tried to find the word demon. The Geth talked in facts or bluntly and demons for the most part didn't exist or were not known simply due to the lack of the warp affecting this universe. The fact it called him a demon meant that it had seen something similar before or were linked or whatever the machines did or could do.

Most of it was harmless as it had supposed worship which would have made any chaos worship laughing as they would think it was a joke. Even then the few bits they had didn't make much sense, but then again they didn't really have daemons being a proven fact as they tried to kill you on a daily bases. So he skipped to the Geth and was disappointed at the amount of useless information they had. The key points were that they were a group of machines that got smarted when they were together like some mechanical ork mob and the bigger units gave the other Geth more control or unity similar to an ork warboss except without them beating each other up and instead employing more advanced tactics. The Quarians built them and the Geth ended up beating them off their planet and turning the Quarian race into a bunch of nomads with no place to call home with a severely damaged immune system if they couldn't even tolerate the atmosphere of their own ships and had to be stuck in their suits for most of their lives.

After that the story gets a bit fuzzy as the Geth stayed in their section of the galaxy and didn't really do much expect be the tale on why AIs shouldn't be built. Then they came out and attacked. People had made stories, theories, and a few guesses, but most of it was rubbish as they swept it under the rug since they "won" in a sense and that was it. There was nothing about their culture or what groups the Geth had formed. They were essentially like the necrons when the Imperium first noticed them. Cold lifeless machines trying to kill them all… until one suddenly started showing an erratic personality and then they noticed some groups actually fighting against each other. They still didn't know much about the necrons, but they had started to get an idea now even if it was a vague one.

Yadrell switched over as he tried to combine the two words together. Most of it was junk as a few poorly made drawings or crazed religious speeches came out of the search, but one caught his eye. He clicked the link and froze in fear as he saw the murder scene as over half a dozen people were dead. A few Geth had been torn apart as apparently the two sides had been fighting each other until something slaughtered them all. In the middle of the field the human soldiers and Geth body parts were arranged to form a message.

The message said "_I'm here Yaddy!"_

"Frak." Yadrell said to himself "She's here. They thought I was what she was. They didn't mean demon as in demonic, but as some kind of new race or something since she properly fraking told them what she actually was!" He shouted in rage "By the warp how the frak did she even get here or stay out of this universe's warp for that matter?"

A sudden thought stuck him as he remembered Dr. Archer. He had thinned the veil had used a lot of the warp's power to create that machine. He didn't have any plans or goals with it as he had simply made it to show just how much of a failure Dr. Archer really was and of course to torture him. Even then it was more of a test of his powers if anything else, but it would certainly have attracted the attention of a daemon especially considering the lack of warp manipulation in this universe as he might as well written "_I am right here!"_ in big bold letters.

Yadrell banged his head against the desk and turned off the extranet as he tried to think about what to do next. He had to show more initiative or power or whatever they liked to have or follow. If Eliza managed to worm her way into _his_ universe than there was no telling who else might have fallen in-between the cracks. He needed real allies instead of the business partner arrangement he had with Cerberus. They were more interested with the ship than they were with him. He also wanted to knock Shepard down a peg for some reason as she just annoyed him for some reason. It might have been because she was welcomed and respected while Yadrell was feared and despised even before he joined the forces of chaos. Shepard had a destiny simply given to her as she had even been brought back from the dead as she was now being handed the "Best the galaxy had to offer" or so he heard. Yadrell had "The best I had scrapped together" as he had technically stole his destiny as he wasn't even supposed to be in this universe.

Yadrell looked at an image of Shepard and said "I wonder what the hero of humanity would say if she really knew who I was?" He put away the image and said "Then again when did I start caring what people thought about me?"

Yadrell opened his book as he started to study the next set of spells his old teacher had left in the book. What new powers would this give him and how would he be able to get the needed "Ritual materials" needed and properly disposed of before anyone noticed?

* * *

Adam moved from side to side as he kept turning in his bed as the nightmare continued again. There he was on the planet as the Nids kept arriving in mass as there was no way to stop them. There was the love of his life waving to him as they were able to escape the death trap and where he would finally confess the feelings he had for her. Then the Batarian laughing at him as a rocket stuck her position as her ship crashed as the yellow mech came. He tried to stop it, but the thing was impervious to his attacks as it simply walked over to her as it raised it's metallic foot above her head as Adam screamed as the foot came crashing down on her head.

"Fuck!" He shouted in frustration as he had suddenly rose up and hit his head against something. "Same fucking dream… Where the hell are those pills?"

Adam rose out of his bed as he fumbled around the desk trying to find them. He managed to grab the bottle and shook it out over his hand in frustration as bits of dust and powder covered his hand. The bottle was empty as he had run out of the medication that would let him sleep without dreaming or remembering the nightmares. So he checked his clock to see when the station's store would open up so he could buy another bottle full of the stuff.

"Fuck." He slowly muttered "Not for another three hours."

Adam opened his closest and started to get dressed in his Cerberus uniform. There was nothing to do for now as he might as well try to catch up on some missing work. If he was lucky he might run into Yadrell and get a conversation started with him. Adam would ether help fill in any missing details Yadrell was having with the galaxy or Yadrell would be the one talking while he listened and asked a few questions. Either way it was a hell of a lot better than banging his head up against something and losing a few hours of sleep.

So he walked into the hallway as he saw Miss Winter checking over a few reports. She was simply walking back and forth in the hallway doing nothing. Adam felt he would have better luck waiting for the shop to open than talking to her, but he wanted to keep his mind from wondering and heading back to his cursed nightmare.

"Staying up late or waking up early?" Adam said cheerfully despite his current mood. "Looking to figure out how to build that death ray you always wanted or how to make your own cyborg army?" She didn't respond as she continued to look over the reports. "Miss Aurelia Winters are you okay!"

She looked up and said "Sorry. I just got caught up with the paper work. There is just so much to do and so many different things that need to be explained or made sense of."

Adam rubbed his head as he said "The last mission was a rough one."

Winter went quite for a few seconds before she said "It worried me. You saw Dr. Archer as he was convinced he was right. He saw the progress that David had made with the Geth and he saw what the end result would have been. He didn't care about the damage he had done to his brother and from what the machine ended up turning into showed that it would have gotten even worse if we left him. Was that why Yadrell did what he did to the machine? To show us where it would have lead? Try to make an alliance or a peace offer to the Geth?"

Adam shrugged as he said "Honestly I don't know. He likes to experiment with that book of his properly because that his strongest connection to his home. My bet is he tried one just to see what would happen or to see if he could even do it at all for that matter."

Winter shook his head as she said "There is the ship."

"That he didn't know of." Adam countered "Besides Cerberus has been messing around with it as we are changing it for our own needs. Yes it is for the greater good, but he studies and experiments with that stuff simply because that is who he is. You're a scientist and I'm a soldier. You figure out stuff and I shoot the enemy. He is for a better word a mage. That means he messes around with spells."

Winter nodded as she started to get an idea and said "And where does that leave us? Not you and me of course but Cerberus." She quickly added as her face flushed for a moment "We have a ship that has the technology we need. We have a coming war in which we are barely equipped to fight and we know the end result of our project will possibly safe millions. How do we make sure we don't cross the line and end up like Dr. Archer? What makes it worse is that we know the end result and that it actually works. What is to keep us from causing transgressions against humanity?"

Adam chuckled as he jokingly said "We ask Yadrell to look into the future and ask if we become mad scientist?" She glared at him "Alright the truth isn't that simple. Look at the Imperium. I not only read their records, but I also talked to someone who lived it. They have people do a couple of things which would have been outlawed or possibly causing a few things that would make Dr. Archer's project look like jay walking in comparison. You know their giant space map that is used to guide the warp?"

Winter checked through her notes and said "Their Astronomican?"

Adam nodded as he said "I didn't really understand much of it to tell the truth, but it is somehow linked to their emperor on the golden throne or something I don't really know. Anyway What I do know is that the imperium sends about send ten thousand psykers to be sacrificed to it per day. Not per year or even per week, but per day. That's a lot of people and while some do survive the procedure most of them don't, but they come out stronger. We send people through a dangerous procedure that has resulted in peoples death or destroys their health for life in an attempt to create biotics and even then few who did succeed in being able to become one had problems with the implants used to help control and use their new power. Yet we do it because it is needed. We take these crazed chances, but in the end we remember the difference between right and wrong as we manage to stay on the right path… Does that make any sense?"

Winter leaned against the wall and let it sink in. There had been many instants where some questionable acts had been committed or had to be committed, but they never crossed the line that Archer crossed. She tried to relax as she hoped that Cerberus wouldn't come to the point where they crossed the line like Archer had as the Collector threat was a dangerous threat to humanity as rest of the galaxy didn't care since they were not being affected. What would happen if humanity or Cerberus was pushed too much or put under enough pressure?

"So what were you looking at?" Adam asked in curiosity.

She smiled as she picked up the report and said "Apparently The Illusive Man agreed with our assessment. He was glad we were able to keep this mess contained and our decision with David though I can't help but wonder if that is because Dr. Archer's project would have failed anyway."

Adam shook his head and said "We already knew that or he would have fired us or something."

She nodded as she continued on "True, but before the imperial was essentially a floating lab in space. Now he has decided to have it as a spare team similar to the one that is being set up by Shepard. Our job is to help stop the collectors and continue with our research of the ship."

Adam couldn't help but smile as everything seemed better now. He wasn't stuck watching a bunch of people tinker about while others fought. They had a ship that was more advanced than anything else in the galaxy and now they were actually going to use it.

Winter said with a hint of regret "Though the selection process will be a bit different than Shepherd's. I just have to tell everyone in the morning. So why are you up so late?"

Adam flinched as the memories of the nightmare came back as he said "Just a bad dream."

Winter looked down the hallway and said "Well Kelly Chambers isn't due to leave the station just yet. You could properly get a session."

Adam shook his head and rudely said "I don't need my head examined by a shrink! I just woke up with a bad headache and was just going to check to see if they had anything for it."

Adam walked down the hallway as she made note of this. There had been multiple complaints filed in about Adam arriving at the ship stores. There also had been multiple perches of varies meds that dealt with sleep problems. At first it had been just accounted to stress from the mission he had been on against the alien race called Tyranids, but she could now tell that this was about something else. She just hoped that it wouldn't get any worse as he seemed to be getting better now that he was on active duty instead of just playing security guard.

* * *

The meeting was being set as the three sat in the room. Yadrell looked over the copies sent to him as Adam took one of the pills in his pocket with some water before he looked at his report. Winter stood as she tried to present herself well and let them know they what was going to do now. While it was good that they were finally doing something more and they were on an actual mission like Shepherd. It was a little annoying to be stuck playing the backup squad or the B team in a sense.

Winter flipped though the reports and spoke "Shepherd is now being redirected to Omega to recruit someone named archangel and Mordin. That leaves Jack with us and possibly Siu Zixin a former Eclipse merc with multiple changes for inhuman experimentation, illegal technological modifications and creations including purposely creating AIs, along with half a dozen other crimes."

Yadrell looked at the report in confusion and said "They are also giving Shepherd a wanted Krogan that has even worse crimes committed so why isn't this Eclipse merc being given to Shepherd or this Krogan being given to us?"

Adam shook his head as he said "Because apparently Zaeed and Zixin got into a few blood baths trying to kill each other. Also unlike the others Siu Xiang may have the necessary information to help with the hybridization project and he is pro-human. The reason why he was kicked out was because they found out he was dissecting fallen alien teammates in order to find out better ways to kill them as he used their bodies for spare parts for his projects and he had killed his non-human commanders while making them look like accidents."

Winter nodded as she said "That's why we have authority to shoot him if needed. Shepherd is supposed to form the team to help defeat the collectors and possibly unite the races for the coming reaper invasion. Our team is supposed to ensure that humanity survives instead of being a causality of war as we are gathering some of the best of humanity."

Adam sighed as he said "So Shepard gets to be lawful good while we get chaotic good." He whispered to Yadrell "Shepard is the flagship team while we are clean up in a sense."

Winter raised her voice as she said "We also have to recruit a few unorthodox people. Shepherd's team is to hopefully strike the collector's base and defeat them. Our team is to help prevent the human colonies from being abducted, but to also prepare for the coming of the reapers. We need people that will last longer than one suicide mission. Even if they succeed I doubt they will stay together as they will all properly go their separate ways after this. Our team needs to stick together even after we defeat the collectors."

Yadrell sighed as he said "Alright who is Jack and what makes him so special?"

"Her." Winter added as she looked over the notes "_She_ is most powerful human biotic locked away on purgatory. Hates Cerberus due to the actions of a rogue group that broke away from Cerberus much like Archer did in Project Overlord. They screwed up big time as she slaughtered them all before she decided to attempt to commit as many crimes as possible. She is also considered highly unstable and possibly insane."

Yadrell slapped himself in the face as it now hurt to look at the documents. Shepherd was gaining a merc who was fighting to stop the well-armed and organized criminal enterprises stationed on omega (which they were in charge of and practically owned) along with a skilled scientist who runs a clinic and managed to be an extremely gifted scientist also. They got a crazed psychopath who committed heresies in this universe along with an even crazier individual who also happens to have good reason to want to kill them due to a rogue Cerberus operation fraking up her childhood. They had two possible recruits who might try to kill them before they gave the recruitment pitch while shepherd had four possible recruits with one of them waiting for her to arrive at the station to join up with them.

Yadrell tapped his fingers on the table as he tried to figure out what he could do. The crazed scientist might not be too hard if he was like any of the heretic tech priest back home. Simply showing the ship along with a few techniques to combine technology with the warp might win him over though it might also cause a few extra ones also. Jack would be difficult as Yadrell would properly spend the rest of the day just trying to read her past and possibly future to get an idea on how to attempt to recruit her before she tried killing them out of rage due to their affiliations. Then there was Eliza who was searching for him. Would he be able to recruit her or would he be better off having to fight her and send her back to the fraking warp. At this point it was pretty much a coin toss for the two.

It was Adam who ended up coming up with the solution as he said "If Shepherd was supposed to be able to recruit Jack then why don't we do what she would do? Jack hates Cerberus so we give her a compromise as we let her look at Cerberus documents in exchange for her help. Hopefully she will see the difference between the group that went rouge and Cerberus itself. Otherwise she will at least join in an attempt to get back at Cerberus as she tries to dig up some dirt."

Winter shook her head in refusal and said "What keeps her from leaving or turning on us once she finds something she considers "dirt" as you put it?"

Adam simply shrugged as he said "What other choice do we have? That's exactly what Shepherd would do and during that time she would try to get to know her and make her want to stay."

Winter rolled her eyes as she didn't say anything. Shepherd just naturally attracted people as she had actually convinced a Krogan to help destroy Saren's research that was going to cure them of the Genophage which was the biggest problem the Krogan had as it was slowly driving their race to extinction and a lot of them were trying to fix the problem (though most of them were unsuccessful). If any of them attempted the same trick they would have been shot pointblank by the Krogan's shotgun instead. Still they didn't have any better ideas so they continued to go over what they knew as they agreed to try to get Jack first simply because they could buy her cell and leave with it keeping her in cryostats. Once they had a better solution or they plan ready they would release her and take it from there.

* * *

The ship lurched as Eliza sat practically naked on her homemade throne. The command deck was a massive orgy as people went wild. The humans went about with the xenoes as everyone was having sex. Eliza looked at her body as it had started to be over taken by the warp. More mutations revealing her true nature had started too appeared as reality started to gnaw away at her essences as it tried to shove her back into the warp.

Eliza was not a fan of this new warp as it was much too quite as none of her sisters resided in it though she did have to admit that it was much easier to stay in the material world since no one actually knew she was a daemon. She could walk about seducing new souls to her cult as they worshiped her while they tried to find more Asari so that she could take over their bodies to extend her time in this realm. No pesky inquisitors searching or wretched priests with their blessings as the entire galaxy was ripe and ready to be conquered by the forces of chaos.

One of her new cultist bowed down to her and said "Mistress I am sorry but we haven't find him yet. Could it be possible he never made the trip?"

Eliza jumped down and grabbed the cultist by his neck and shouted "He was the one who lead me here! He has to be here in this galaxy!"

The cultist squirmed as he said "The last message you left incurred the wrath of the Geth. Perhaps it is not wise to go to a planet that has a one of their ships crashed on it?"

Eliza smiled as she remembered the moment fondly. All of those humans and machines were fighting each other. She joined in the fray and slaughtered them all. One of the humans asked what she was so she told them she her race was called daemons. The look on their faces once they realized what she really was even more delicious once she feasted on their agony and despair before she finally killed them. The Geth machines kept watching even when they were being hacked apart as if they were trying to find some way to defeat her. It didn't matter much as they were destroyed anyway.

She gazed into the warp as she found the damaged point between reality and the warp as she said "He must be there. There are not too many beings that can weaken the veil in this universe and even fewer who can even use the warp. Besides the warp is mostly silent making it much easier to track this chaos left in the warp itself."

She looked at the cultist as he was shivering in fear. They were not supposed to be afraid as death was just a new sensation they had yet to experience. So she opened herself to the warp and let its power flow into her as she started to chant one of the few spells she knew. The man stopped shivering as he was now filled with lust. She tore off one of his arms, but instead of screaming in pain he shouted in ecstasy as his eyes filled with hunger as he wanted to go through the experience again. So she let him feel a new sensation as she filled him with the power of the warp. He laughed in joy as the mutations had started to take over as he began to change into new lovely forms until he started screaming as his body was overtaken by the mutations as he withered into a spawn of chaos.

Disgusted by her failure she tore the creature apart with her own claws as she felt the faint tug of Slaanesh on her soul. Was her god enraged that she had tried to create new lesser daemons or where these new converts of chaos simply too weak as they hadn't spent much time under the worship of chaos to even be turned into lesser daemons? (She would allow lesser daemons, but not daemon princes or princesses.) A part of her wished Yadrell was there as he would have the answers or could at least point her in the right direction. He was always good with the trivial matters as she was now forced to deal with them more on a growing daily bases.

"Get me an Asari!" She shouted out loud as the cultist rushed towards the slave cages. "This body is getting a little bit too tight."

It didn't take long for them to bring one of the spares they had captured as this one struggled as she tried to escape. Fear filled her eyes as she knew the fate that would await her. She had been stripped of her eclipse armor and now wore a much more slimming suit of armor. The armor was practically skin tight as it left little to the imagination, but keeping most of what men wanted to see kept hidden behind the armor. Eliza loved the shields that this universe employed as they protected the entire body including the parts left bare. While they worked better fully protecting a person she managed to enhance their abilities with a little bit of warp craft.

The Asari shouted in panic "You can't kill me! I know things!"

Eliza smiled as she said "And soon I'll know them too. Besides don't you want to experience the joyful sensation of a meld with me? It will be beyond your greatest imagination."

The Asari started to cry as Eliza drew closer and shouted "I can be useful. I'll was an experience eclipse commando!"

Eliza laughed as she joyfully said "I love going Commando!"

Eliza's hand fell on the Asari's face as she looked into the Asari's eyes. It wouldn't take long for her to start or force the meld procedure. Sure she could always forcefully take over the body, but the meld process made it so much easier as it made the body last longer and the fact it was an enjoyable experience was an added bonus.

The Asari tried one last card as she shouted "Ardat-Yakshi! I know where another Ardat-Yakshi like you went! Dear goddess I don't want to be killed in a meld."

Eliza paused for a moment and stared at the Asari in confusion. She had no idea what an Ardat-Yakshi was and it was properly safe to bet that the Ardat-Yakshi were not daemons like here. Still this is one of those things that Yadrell would focus on. It was also one of those things that would be a nuisance if she ignored it. It was one of the things Yadrell had kept reminding her every time he had to help summon her back from the warp when some minor nuisance she ignored ended up sending her back to the warp and while her cultist were helpful. She highly doubted that any of them had the talent or skill to summon her back from the warp if this nuisance ended up sending her back to the warp.

Eliza let go of the Asari and said "Tell me more about this… Arda-yakshe?"

"Ardat-Yakshi" The Asari said correcting her only for Eliza to glare back "I mean I just thought they were a myth. Then we were paid a lot of credits to help one escape. A few others managed to escape, but I doubt they managed to escape from the Justicars."

Eliza felt the nagging sensation in the back of her head as she said "Justicars?" She could just tell by the name that this was one of those important little details that would bite her in the ass if she ignored them. "Tell me everything you know about these two groups."

The Asari smiled for a moment as she said "You mean you won't kill me or do whatever it was you were going to do to me?"

Eliza paused for a moment and looked over the Asari's body. It filled out nicely in the right spots and had a certain figure that helped turn the heads of men. It was one of the reasons why she kept this Asari alive so that she could use the body herself one day. She had thought about lying and simply breaking her promise when everything was done, but that dam nagging voice in the back of her head kept at it. Eliza was really beginning to hate that voice as she knew it would continue nagging at her if she broke the promise and continue long after she took over the body. It was one of the reasons why she wanted Yadrell back with her. At least then the nagging voice was outside of her head where she could ignore it.

The Asari noticed her expression as she couldn't help but shiver as she said "It may not sound much… but I did spend part of my youth as an Asari… "companion" if you catch my drift."

Eliza smiled as she said "You spent time as a joy girl?"

The Asari quickly nodded as she said "If that means I fucked with other Asari and aliens then yes!"

Suddenly the image of a nice threesome entered Eliza's mind. What better way to help convince Yadrell to join back up with her than a nice booty call? Besides the mindless cultist without any brains left did leave something she for some reason started to desire as she began to miss Yadrell's company more now though she couldn't tell why. She looked inside herself just to see what her god's opinion might be only to find that the tug on her soul had started to become weaker. She had just realized that the Slaanesh's grip on her had been getting weaker ever since she came to this new universe. The thought caused a small sensation of fear down her spine as she had no idea what would happen to her if Slaanesh's grip actually broke or was cut from her soul or how it would affect her in this new universe.

She tried to banish the thoughts and focused on the new matter at hand as she said "You have until we reach our destination to tell me everything you know about these two groups and help convince me on why I should keep you alive. If you succeed than you of course get to live. I don't have to tell you what happens if you fail."

The Asari nodded as hope now mingled in her eyes along with the fear as she began.

* * *

_**Citadel**_

Star Child woke up and said "You arrival was unexpected. You must make a…. Hello?"

Star Child looked around in confusion. The cleansing of the cycle hadn't happened yet. The reapers had yet to make it to the galaxy the keepers cleaned the room before moving on. The room was empty as the room itself was barely powered.

Star Child moved about the room and said "What is going on? The final battle hasn't been reached and no one is here… Did a group of synthetics somehow destroy all organic life before the reapers arrived?"

Charts appeared in front of Star Child showing the citadel's status. Dozens of new organic races lived in the Citadel as news being sent back to their home world showed their planets were still intact. For some reason this didn't make Star Child feel any better. Could the unthinkable have happened as his systems have somehow started to deaerate to the point they couldn't be repaired. The Keepers should have been able to keep his systems running.

"Mon a me you really are pathetic." Said a voice from the darkness around Star Child

Star Child looked around as the room's scanners went active as he said "Could you show yourself? If an alternate decision needs to be made."

One of the keepers started to jerk wildly before it started to tear apart the systems. The others quickly moved to stop it only for a one of the wild keeper's limbs to mutate into a gun and tear them apart with an energy beam. Star Child tried to figure out what had compromised the Keeper before he noticed the strange markings that had been cut into it's flesh.

Star Child shouted "Stop!"

The room's internal weapons went active tearing apart the infected Keeper as a dark mist started to pour out of it. The room began to twist as frost formed across the floor as a chair twisted from out of the ground as the mist settled in the chair and took a human shape.

The mist laughed as it said "Oh mon a me you managed to stop my first try. Though I doubt it would have been that easy to kill you."

Star Child tried to scan the apparition yet the systems said it didn't exist. The only things that could tell that it actually existed were the keepers left in the room and Star Child's own eyes.

Star Child spoke as confusion started to overcome him as he said "What do you want? Are you trying to stop the culling?"

The mist shook it's head as it replied "Of course not. It's the second best thing that will hit this galaxy. Lots of good old fighting as chaos to go around. The theory or action of chaos not the army of chaos mind you."

Star Child tried to figure out the apparition as he replied "Then what are you looking for? Why have you come to try to destroy me then?"

The mist stretched out it's hand and proudly said "Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the fires no matter the cost and you my dear pest are one of the lesser ones in this case. Harbinger is the main villain I need to set the stage with as he should lead the killer robotic monsters instead of some last minute hack that doesn't make any sense."

Star Child switched over to his controls over the reaper and said "The reapers must come early to prevent your race from breaking the cycle… Why aren't they responding?"

The mist laughed as he said "Because I helped finish the program that Harbinger was slowly making to get rid of you. Don't know how long it will take for him to find out the leash is broken, but how did you expect them to react if the only thing to stop their unstoppable force if for someone manages to hit a big shiny red button in organic central base of command? They are going to try to fix that major flaw. That would be _you_ if you didn't catch on."

"Impossible." Star Child said in disbelief "I would have known."

"Expect they did it during every cycle they were allowed to be active while you slept your ass off allowing them to find those lovely loopholes." The mist laughed as it continued to mock Star Child. "First a group manages to find a way to slow down the reapers as they find a flaw. They take notice of the flaw and make a few edits to help make sure it doesn't happen."

A large cardboard wall appeared behind the mist as chibi drawings of the reapers and a couple of aliens appeared behind it. It was not enough that the mist apparition was mocking Star Child. He was treating him like an idiot and showing off his powers letting Star Child know that he couldn't do anything to stop or even affect him as he was showing the difference in their powers.

The mist pulled out a wooden stick and pointed at Sovereign figure saying "The good old Race of cycle… whatever and whenever find's the big red button and tries to put up a warning for the next cycle group. They continue forth and reapers find out they know about big red button early so they set up the take the base early bot called Sovereign. You nerf the systems when update comes, but they managed to loop hole it leaving one active reaper to be more active allowing for computing, analyzing and of course subverting your systems when it's active after the citadel is switched to reaper control."

"Early warning system." Star child countered "Nothing serious."

The mist pointed to the next race the promethean "Next race I like to call the buggies. They get together and managed to conquer a good bit of the galaxy. Reapers come in and they run into new unexpected problems. The buggies use a couple of the magic bullet projects from previous cycle including one that was causing some really nice "unintended side effects", but failed before they could get it really working though they managed to get a couple of new magic bullet attempts of their own hidden away for the next cycle. Reapers tear machines and projects apart made sure to destroy records and make new race Collectors. An active race controlled by them to search for genetic anomalies and collect stuff."

Star Child looked through his records and said "I have no record of this race."

The Mist smiled as he said "I know. During their creation they found an interesting quark. Harbinger could directly assume control allowing him to stay active even during your enforced sleep cycle. They also didn't show up on record because your systems do not count "mind control servants" as an active race."

Star Child shook his head more rapidly shouting "Then they would have joined in with the Early warning system."

"Or they wanted to keep it secret from you." The mist said with sadistic glee "Find a race worthy and ascend them early as they cycle keeps growing but had yet to reach the danger or end point of current cycle. They get to keep an entire group off the books with this method so to speak as they continue to subvert your systems. Why waste their ace in getting rid of a minor problem when they can get rid of you and then switch to a more… "efficient" plan than waiting all those years until another group pops up that's advance enough to possibly kill a decent chunk of them."

"Then why are you telling me this!" Star Child shouted in fury "What are you trying to accomplish! The reapers will still find and destroy you."

The mist shook it's head as it said "I'm in the fraking warp. They literally cannot reach me because they don't know a fraking thing about it. I don't want a simple big war that will end with a fifty thousand year wait period or whenever the frak the next culling cycle begins. I want the big war to stay big as the one I left had lasted for over ten thousand fracking years as it had constant warfare happening every fraking second across the big old galaxy. I want it to stay interesting and to watch it all from the warp laughing and enjoying every dam minute."

Star Child shouted "You thing you safe because your hidden? I will find you before you attempt to interfere."

The mist started to disappear as it said "Sorry, but when I go your systems send you back into sleepy mode. I heard that one race believes that death knocks four times. Consider this the first knock and I promise you that my next "knock" will be a lot bigger."

The mist broke out in laughter as it disappeared as Star Child's systems started to take over. He could feel himself losing control as he was being force back into slumber. Still he tried to figure out what was going on as he tried to make sense of the situation. Yet all that could come to mind was a small margin of error. A 5% chance of failure to the overall plan didn't seem that bad. Of course he didn't know about what was happening in the warp or that margin would be a lot bigger as it would also including a margin of chance for his death.

Back in the warp the chaos ship just managed to start its engines as it tried to move away from the planet in an attempt to return to normal space. All of the chaos worshipers were off the planet and back on the ship ready to cause havoc where ever they would arrive as the daemon started to prepare his pieces for his next move as the rest of the board started their turn. Purgatory had started to make it's move as Yadrell's ship came to it.

_And yes. Jack will be in the next chapter._


	8. Chapter 8

Warp effect ch8

_Author note – __I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop_.

_New chapter up. Yadrell takes a trip to Purgatory and things don't go as planned. Minor notes for this chapter. Things made in the Mass Effect universe are not as durable as the 40k verse. Also the return of the old mass effect favorite M-920 Cain. Just like before remember that this is a story. If you have any complaints just send me a message or email. Also anyone who knows how to set a story to be read by Beta readers (not being a Beta reader and reading other people's stories, but sending a story to be read by Beta readers) please send me a message so that I can hopefully set it one up._

_Other than that any Mass effect vs/or 40k in technology, daemons, and so forth would be nice to hear. My current views of the warp is that the warp is a lot calmer without the whole chaos god incident, but there are still sharks lurking about. So unaligned daemons would exist or the "entities of the warp" would also exist. So any thoughts on what might populate the warp in Mass Effect might be nice. Other than that I hope you have a decent time reading this new chapter._

Yadrell loaded his selection of guns as they prepared to dock with Purgatory. Two handguns, a shotgun, two spare las pistols, his trusted long las, and the chaos marine bolt pistol just to be safe. Discarding the staff he had been working on did bother him a little, but Purgatory was not a secure place to let it been seen. The weapons could be explained as long as he didn't shoot them. The staff might be saved as a picture letting the daemon Eliza find where he is and causing a couple of problems and questions that he would rather not deal with yet.

Adam entered the room and said "Saw something you didn't like in the future?"

Yadrell shook his head and said "No just wondering if I could bring one of the spare rockets. I mean I want to get my basic equipment layout ready."

"This is what you call a _basic set _Yadrell?" Adam said in disbelief "You properly have more guns on that table than both me and Miss Winters together."

Yadrell simply shrugged as he said "So one of you are bringing the heavy weapons then. That leaves my set up free from some extra grenades."

Adam sighed as he said "Why have so many weapons? I mean you can tear a mech in half with _your mind_ while you have the laser weapons that ignore armor! Isn't this bit overkill for the pickup mission?"

"Because in my experience the there is no such thing as Overkill. Only fire and reload." Yadrell said with ease "Having weapons is one thing. Making sure you still have enough weapons during the middle of a mission is another thing."

Adam looked at the supply of weapons and said "Do me a favor… just try to take a sneak peek into the future if you can. Just to help ease my mind."

Yadrell nodded as he focused trying to get a glimpse of the future… instead he saw Shepherd on omega. He skipped past the image and refocused and saw Purgatory itself. The glass walls to so that the guards could see the prisoners in the cages. No security turrets or kill boxes at every bulkhead in case something unexpected happened. Even then the walls themselves were too thin for his liking. It was not only an insult to every imperial jail he knew of it was also an insult to the slave cells that Chaos used. The prisoners were not being tortured to the extent they needed as what little torture was employed would have a better effect of having them band together than cower in fear. The little bit of "discomfort" employed in their cells was a far cry from even the basic torture and isolation techniques he had learned under the rogue traders much less Chaos.

Yadrell opened his eyes and said "Saw the place and it is pathetic. If that hunk of space junk is your "most advanced" prison in the galaxy than I need to teach Cerberus how to build some basic prisons for at least the Cerberus prisoners to be stuffed in."

Adam smiled as he said "Surely jail breaks happen in your universe also. After all no defense is perfect."

Yadrell chuckled as he said "But our jails require an army to break them free. I'll take a few more of those experimental frags."

Adam couldn't help but shiver as he said "You saw a jail break?"

Yadrell shook his head and said "I just saw the place itself. I would rather trust my own weapons than their defenses. Besides if they don't have a "Space em" option ready then they really need to get their priorities set."

Winter shouted over the Vox system "Get ready team. We are going to try to pay for Jack's release first. Just a simply pick up job people."

Adam sighed as he said "And now I know that it's going to get screwed up… Still have one of those Nid blades Cerberus is trying to recreate?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "Third crate to your left." He chuckled for a moment "You think it's going to come to close combat?"

Adam pulled out one of the scythe like blades made from a lictor and said "A few years ago I didn't believe in killer ninja space monsters from another galaxy. Besides if these walls are thin then this should help cut us open a path if the paying for Jack doesn't work."

Yadrell nodded as he said "Ahh… Your betting that he will try to raise the price to an even more ridicules price."

Adam gave the scythe a few test swings before he switched to a Bone sword from a Tyranid warrior and said "I'd rather bet that he is going to do something stupid because he is greedy. Raising the price is more likely, but threatening to blow Jack up or space her if we _don't _pay is what I am expecting."

Winter entered the room and sighed in disappointment as she said "What part of a simple pick up translates to bring the armory with you? The deal has already been made as the transaction is set to pay the warden _after_ we have Jack in our custody."

Yadrell looked at the weapons made from the Nids and said "Give me which ever one you're not taking Adam."

* * *

The ship was now docked as they walked out to meet a dozen soldiers with weapons ready to use if needed. Each of them making crude joke about the ship as one even called it a junk barge. Sure it lacked the aesthetic looks of the ships in this universe, but with the turrets not repaired and linked to the ship's systems they could destroy anything that got close to the ship… though they properly could just drive their way through the station itself without even scratching the paintjob.

One of the mercs stopped laughing at the crude jokes as he said "Welcome to Purgatory. Warden Kuril will greet you shortly," The merc kicked a box towards their direction "And as this is a maximum security facility, we need to relieve you of your weapons before you enter."

Yadrell chuckled at the comment and said "And we are going to keep ours. If you want to try to take them by force I should point out that our ship's weapons are armed and ready behind us."

The merc pointed at the ship and said "And judging by the size of those guns you will be taken out in the blast with us if they actually work at all."

Yadrell shrugged as he said "Wouldn't be the first time I had close air support."

Everyone went silent as they realized he was serious and as if to emphasize the point a few of the turrets turned and locked onto the merc's position as they could see them through the window. Yadrell's helmet sealed itself as Adan followed suit ready in case they really did blow a hole into the station. It would have been sucide blowing up the docking port with them inside it, but everyone including Adam and Winter got the impression that he was crazy enough to go through with it.

The main doors behind the mercs opened up as a helmetless turian walked out shouting "Men stand down!"

The mercs lowered their weapons though a few continued to look at the ship turrets uneasily as they didn't bother moving. Yadrell focused on the helmetless turian and recognized him from the reports as Warden Kuril who was in charge of Purgatory and the xenos they were being Jack's freedom from.

Kuril smiled as he said "Forgive my men commander. They were merly following orders but I still have to ask you to turn over your weapons. I assure you they will be returned to you untouched once you leave the premises of the facility."

Adam stepped forward as he said "Warden Kuril I presume? Listen, I wouldn't relieve my weapons even if this was a government facility in the middle of counsel space much less in the middle of the Terminus systems on a jail controlled by mercenary bands. No offence, but I would rather walk through this jail with a gun in arm."

"None taken." Kuril shrugged as he replied "You may keep your weapons as I am sure we can handle any trouble from three people, but I must insist that you're ship's weapons to stop being pointed at my crew."

"Understood." Adam calmly said as the turrets stopped being aimed at the mercs "Lead the way Warden."

As soon as the warden turned Adam switched to his vox system and spoke on the private chanel and said "What the fuck were you thinking Yadrell! That stunt could have gotten us killed!"

Yadrell shook his head as he said "Those turrets were built to take out torpedoes and possibly small shuttle crafts attempt to board the ship. We would have easily survived a low yield shot."

"Are you sure?" Winter spoke as she had switched to the secure channel "I mean your laser weapon is more advanced than our guns. Are you sure that it would have just damaged the ship instead of shooting straight though the ship itself and out into space taking us with it from explosive decompression?"

Yadrell simply shrugged as he replied "Better to let them think twice than to do something stupid first. Besides if they kept their eyes on the turrets they wouldn't be focused on the pins on their grenades slipping a little bit lose."

Adam spoke in a hushed tone "You can do that?"

"Not very well." Yadrell sadly admitted "But I'm sure seeing one of them suddenly blowing up would having shocked them long enough for us to mow them down before they could react."

Warden Kuril continued to rant as he said "each cell is a self-contained, modular unit." Pride filled his voice as he continued "I've blown a few out the airlocks as an example."

"Well that confirms he has the "Space em" option ready if needed" Adam spoke on the vox system. "Let's make sure we don't run into any rooms that look like those cell blocks."

Kuril continued "The ship is made up of 30 cell blocks identical to this one – we house thousands of criminals. We can put the whole place in lockdown on a moment's notice and nothing goes wrong here."

Yadrell rubbed his hand against the side of the wall and said "Nothing?"

"Nothing." Kuril said with confidence.

Winter looked at the place as she said "How do you keep such a place maintained?"

Kuril brightened up as he went back to explaining his pride and joy as he said "We can cut corners that governments can't. And each prisoner brings in a fee from his home world." His face stiffened as he said "These individuals are violent, and their home planets pay well to keep them here."

"And if they don't pay?" Adam spoke as he was certain of the answer

Kuril spoke with ease as he said "We explain that we can't maintain the prisoner without their help, so we'll be forced to release him back onto his home world." A gin formed on his mouth as he added "At an unspecified place and time."

"So it's an extortion racket?" Winter asked harshly.

"I call it smart." Yadrell said with ease. "If your job is to keep the most violent prisoners locked away from the rest of the universe. Sometimes you need to remind the people in charge why they are kept out away from their society."

Kuril chuckled as he said "He understands. You don't have to agree with my methods, but don't question my motives. These are despicable people and I am keeping them locked up for a dam good reason at that."

"So any escape attempts?" Yadrell said as he continued to look at the walls instead of the prison itself.

Kuril chuckled a little as he said "We are in space as they have nowhere to go and they know it. But still, we exercise extreme caution. These are dangerous individuals."

Yadrell looked out the window and saw two prisoners starting a fight only for some machine to force them apart. He looked at the place in disappointment. Apparently they were not being using enough caution otherwise the creeping feeling he was having would have gone away by now.

Kruil continued his speeches and answered their questions before he let them know which hall to go down to transfer the funds. The others looked at the prison in sorrow as they saw the inhuman treatment including a guard beating an unarmed prisoner. The others started to talk to the guard as they tried to figure out why this was being done. Yadrell simply watched the guard beating the prisoner as he saw it as foolish. If the guard wasn't careful they prisoner could switch the situation and start to choke the guard to death in a single move. Then they would have a prisoner with a hostage. If they really wanted to hurt the prisoners then why not send a couple of jolts of electricity through his system or slash his legs a little?

They left the guards and continued down the hallway until one of the prisoners caught their attention. He had asked for them to buy him, but quickly backed out of it when he found out they were there for Jack. They asked a few questions and started to find out just how corrupt the place was as Yadrell began to grow more unease as his fingers twitched in anticipation as they danced around the knife he used for rituals. This place was just filled with the minor touches of chaos and corruption as a few spells or rituals would make it a perfect place to set up for the forces of Chaos.

Yadrell tried to relax as he knew he had to keep the growing desire bottled up as this wasn't the time or place. Besides there were no markings of the forces of chaos from back home. They entered the last room as a single worker pointed them to the last room. Yadrell eyed the worker as he was able to hear the worker's thoughts as he saw that it was a trap.

Yadrell grabbed the worker by the throat and turned him towards the camera as he held the ritual dagger to the workers throat and shouted "Nice try, but I'm not stepping into the cell."

The warden sighed as his voice went on the intercom and said "My apologies, Sniper, but you're more valuable as a prisoner than a customer."

Yadrell looked at the camera and said "Sniper?"

"Yes that's the only name we have of you since you haven't used any names." Kruil spoke politely back "Plenty of governments are asking for you to be held for your crimes and the shadow broker himself is paying much more for you than you are for Jack. You can feel safe with the knowledge that your capture will help me to get another jail set up."

Yadrell chuckled as he said "You really think that I will give up this easily?"

Kruil sighed as he spoke with confidence "You are trapped and I have seen and captured more dangerous criminals than you. The doors are sealed and if worse we can space _two_ rooms if needed."

Yadrell smiled as he said "You haven't seen anything like me before."

He pulled the dagger across the worker's throat and began to chant as the powers of the warp flowed through him. Using a life always helped casting a spell as this one was ready as he unleashed his attack tearing a section of the walls killing the mercs on the other side.

Kruil shouted in frustration "Innate lockdown!"

Yadrell quickly pulled out the las pistols and have them to Winter and Adam. More mercs rushed down the corridor ready to engage them. Adam fired off a few rounds as the shots went through their armor as their shields were helpless against the attack. Winter advanced forward as she focused of the ones smart enough to start retreating once they realized their armor was now useless.

Yadrell shouted into his vox system "Status of the ship?"

"We're doing good." Responded the pilot "Crew of mercs tried to rush the door. It didn't end to well for them."

Winter shouted in response "Enemy cleared over here. Disengage from purgatory for now and shoot anyone attempting to leave."

Adam looked at Winter as he said "You're going to shoot anyone attempting to leave the station?"

Winter nodded as she advanced towards the next position and said "We just used the laser weapons and the last thing we need is for someone to let the rest of the galaxy know we have them. Besides anyone left here properly isn't innocent."

She pulled up her omni tool and started to hack a nearby computer until she found the ship's schematics and pointed at the security control room. They followed her as the blue sun mercs tried to regroup, but it was useless. Any shot they fired was stopped by the shields and armor leaving them helpless against a foe they couldn't hurt that could kill them in one shot. More began to fall back as it quickly became obvious even to the mercs that they either needed more people or better guns.

It didn't take them long to reach the security room and finish the one frantic working who was trying to finish the lockdown before they arrived. He turned around and looked at them in terror as he dropped his gun and held his hands in the air knowing it was useless to even attempt to fight. Yadrell shot him in the head anyway.

"Why the fuck did you do that!" Adam shouted "He was unarmed and surrendered!"

Yadrell shook his head and replied "And we already had the Warden threaten to space us. Last thing we need is for some fool to alert the warden for him to actually try that little trick on us."

Winter went over to the computer as she went to work. Getting past the security took a shot amount of time, but she froze as she ran into a certain problem. Just releasing Jack would take a while to get past all the security as the Warden would be sure to notice her activity. Releasing all of the prisoners at once could be done much easier, but every criminal would be freed from their cells.

Winter spoke out loud "Bad news. It's going to take a while to release Jack, but I can easily release all of them at the same time."

Yadrell groaned as he said "Who the frak makes it easier to make a system wide jail break than to simply release one prisoner."

Winter smiled as she said "This place was converted from a zoo and the old system commands have it in place to help free the animals from their cages in case of a major disaster due to some safety requirement law passed. So you can thank some politician for that one."

Yadrell flinched as he said "If I didn't know better I would say that Tzeetch is laughing at this moment. Release all the prisoners. That will but a few more bodies between us and the bullets."

Winter nodded as she activated the system. The system went to work as it started to release Jack from her containment unit as a couple of heavy mechs suddenly activated and locked their weapons onto the cell. It seemed that the Warden decided to get rid of Jack after all.

Adam shouted in frustration "Damit! Winter can you disable those mech!"

"I can't." She shouted back "Too many systems. Hope your sword can cut us a was down there."

Adam pulled it out as the mist started to dissipate from the cell as they finally got a good look at Jack. She was a young woman, probably in her early twenties. She was dressed in a prison jumpsuit similar to the other inmates expect this one only covered the lower half of her body. The upper half had been wrapped around her waist as she had some sort of belt covering her chest. Yadrell would have guessed she was a worshiper of Slaanesh if she appeared back home as what wasn't covered by the suits was covered in tattoos.

Adam paused for a moment and said "That's Jack? She's tiny."

Winter shouted "Sword! Walls! Now!"

The mechs prepared to fire as Jack woke up. Everyone was expecting her to die a horrible death in the next few moment expect for Yadrell.

Yadrell smiled as he said "My money's on the girl."

Jack's biotic's flared as she tore away the restraints and got out of the cell only to notice the mechs. Like some Khorne berserker she charged head first screaming at them as her biotic powers activated as she tore them apart with ease. Yadrell had mixed feelings as it revealed that Jack actually was quite powerful as the station shook a little bit from her next attack. The only problem was that like most women he had meet Jack was crazy and properly wanted to kill him. The tricky part would be convincing her to join them since it seemed she was already capable of breaking out of the jail on her own.

They could hear shouts over the intercom "Fuck! Jack's escaped! Get security teams down here!"

The doors unlocked as they ran down into the room as they tried to catch up to Jack as she was moving quickly. The mechs were scrapped and a nice large hole was now in the wall letting them know which direction Jack had went. For once in his life Yadrell actually missed the Imperial prisons as it would have been much easier catching up to her. He really didn't want to have to explain to The Illusive Man how for his first recruitment mission he had let their objective escape with ease.

The Warden shouted over the intercom "All Guards: restore order! Lethal force Authorized! But don't Kill Jack! Techs! Lockdown! Lockdown!"

* * *

The cells had opened as now all of the prisoners were turing the place into a free for all. The chaos cultist gathered together as they prepared for their escape. The follower of Khorne carried one of the prisoners with him and snapped his neck before he ripped out his spine letting the blood flow into the sacrificial circle. Everything was being prepared as they would soon have their powers back.

The follower of tzeetch spoke "The gods have granted us this chance, but one of us most speak the name that must not be spoken. Ezula speak the name!"

Ezula shouted "Just because I'm not following a single god doesn't mean I get to be the scrafice."

The other unaligned chaos heretic laughed as he said "No you just expect that Yadrell will somehow come to this place and save your sorry ass! He properly has become a daemon prince already."

Ezula screamed in hatred "He would've turned into a chaos spawn before… Wait I didn't mean to sa.." His voice was choked off as his body rapidly mutated before their eyes as he was turning into a spawn of chaos.

The Tzeetch follower laughed in triumph "The gods have sent us sign! Kill him and regain our lost powers before the transformation is complete!"

They rushed Ezula before he finished transforming and killed him as they powers of the warp flowed into them restoring their lost powers. Each one felt their blessings return back to them. The Nurgle cultist's body bloated as the scent of death now hung over him as creatures moved around under his flesh now. The Tzeetch cultist felt his connection to the warp restored as feathered raven wings sprout out of his back as ice started to form around him as he unleashed some of his spells on the guards who had saw them. The follower of Slaanesh smiled as his body now fell in-between the two genders again and quikly stepped away from the follower of Khorne. His body no longer looked human. Horns had grown out of his head as he his skin was now covered in scales. Sparks of fire came out of his mouth as his teeth were now all razor sharp.

All four of the cultist scattered enjoying the embrace of their gifts again as they proved to be more than a match for the commoner prisoners and mercs that guarded the building. None of them bothered to notice that the fifth cultist had disappeared. His prison garb had fallen onto the floor as nothing was left. It took a few second before he could open his new eyes as they were now the station's cameras. The other regained their dark gifts and mutations from the warp, the last cultist gained a new one. His body had been fused with the station itself as everything inside Purgatory was being taken over by his presence. It wouldn't be long before the entire station was under his control as the warp substance his unholy union with the station and began to reshape to his will. The cultist's mind raced as he began to ready the next step of the ritual that the others had yet to notice. He started to weaken the veil between the warp and reality as lesser unaligned daemons started to pour through filling the station with power. His eyes focused on the few puny mortals that were trying to escape their tomb as he prepared the newly added robots under his control to stop them.

* * *

Yadrell froze as he said "Frak. Somebody on the ship please check the status of the station. Any unusual power signatures flared up?"

The pilot spoke in surprise as he said "We just got one. We haven't been able to translate this one, but apparently it is big."

"Change of plans now!" Yadrell shouted in panic "We grab Jack and haul her ass back to the ship before this place falls into the warp!"

Before any of them could ask they reached the one of the large spaces where the prisoners were being stored. They could see the prisoners were either fighting with the blue sun guards with salvaged weapons or the more crazed individuals against them. It didn't make any sense until they saw a few black creatures moving around tearing everybody apart with their claws.

Yadrell slowly spoke in fear and surprise as he said "Ebon Geist. We need to run."

Two YMIR mechs came out into the open as the gunned down the blue sun guards and as a few LOKI mechs moved over to grab the surviving soldiers and dragged them over to a bloody alter. They left them to their fates as they rushed forward shooting anything that got in their way. More of the prison had started to shift and change as Yadrell knew what was happening, but a part of him refused to believe it until they ran into a dead prisoner. The stench was horrible as his bloated corpse laid across the hallway as the creatures inside his body continued to move about until he tossed a frag grenade into the body getting rid of them all. The forces of chaos had managed to arrive at purgatory and do what they did best.

They continued to run down the next section of the ship as there were no survivors in it as the mechs were stuck combating the Ebon Geist daemons that managed to break through the veil and wrack havoc. A few of the mechs tried to shoot them, but they didn't too long to a few higher powered shot from the las weapons as they Ebon Geist would then quickly tear them apart. Thankfully not many of them focused on them and the few that did were able to be driven back by Yadrell's psyker powers and spells. They were more interested in the souls that couldn't fight back anyway and the station was flooded with them.

They continued to advance until they ran into Warden Kuril as he and a few blue sun mercs were fighting of some of the prisoners. The one with a tail was gunned down by a turret as the prisoners started to break formation. Kuril continued to try to fight back only for a monster to rush towards him as the gunfire simply bounced of his scales. Kuril screamed as the beast grabbed him by the head as it smiled.

The monster shouted "Blood for the blood god!" In one swift motion Kuril's head was ripped out of his body along with the spine "Skulls for the Skull throne!" He finished laughing as the prisoners cheered.

A second prisoner appeared with wings as he turned around and said "Of course you had to also escape the warp just like us Yadrell."

The monster turned around shouting "Foul psyker! I shall kill you for your betrayal! Kill them and add their skulls to the skull throne!"

The prisoners shouted in joy as they charged while the prisoner with wings moved over to the turret and started to work commence with the ritual as the shield generators flared up as the taint of the warp now hung around them. Yadrell switched to his long las and started to snipe any targets that came up along with the shield generators. Winter switched to array of omni tools and deployed her turret to give them some cover while she send incendiary shots or cryo blasts to slow down the growing horde of prisoners. Adam on the other hand kept firing his shotgun until it ran out of ammo and the Khorne heretic came close as he took a deep breath and exhaled a stream of fire onto his position.

Adam managed to get to cover fast enough to avoid most of it, but not fast enough to finish reloading as the Khorne heretic smashed through his cover and grabbed him by the neck. He laughed ready to pull the same trick he had did on the Warden as Adam discarded his gun and drew the bone blade from his side as it easily cut though the heretic's flesh as his guts spilled across the floor. The heretic dropped Adam as a look of surprise covered his face as he knew he had been defeated.

The heretic muttered "I was supposed to asc…"

Adam slammed the bone blade into the heretic's skull shouting "Go back to hell were you belong!"

The prisoners stopped their attacks for a moment and began to scream in agony as their bodies started to shrivel up making them look like mummies before they fell to the ground. The Tzeetch heretic laughed as the ground started to erupt as the dreaded combination of warp and tech had merged together into a defiler made out of the components of the station itself. It had a massive claw like hand on the left as the turret that the Warden was using now severed as it's other arm as it started to fire a hail of bullets at them. Meanwhile the Tzeetch heretic stood on top of it as he started to unleash one of the more nastier spells of Tzeetch as the blue flamed warped anything that it hit never leaving the same thing twice.

Yadrell ducked behind cover and shouted "Please tell me someone brought a fracking rocket launcher."

"Give me a few moments" Winter shouted as she opened a case that they assumed was carrying the funds Cerbeus was going to give for Jack.

Adam shouted in panic "Your brought a fucking Nuke Gun!"

Yadrell screamed "Then fracking use it!"

The Tzeetch heretic suddenly focused on her position as the attack tore apart most of her cover. Yadrell rose up as he fired an array of psychic blasts as the Tzeetch cultist managed to doge each one. The Defiler fired at Adam's position keeping him pinned as LOKI mechs started to enter the room ready to finish them off.

The Tzeetch heretic laughed in joy as he shouted "You cannot stop the weaver of fate as I can see everything! Nothing you can do will stop me."

Yadrell looked up as he saw Jack running above them. He fired a few shots as the Tzeetch heretic forcing him to take flight as he prepared to kill him in one blow only for the glass nearby him to break apart into a thousand shards. He dogged the attack and managed to counter Yadrell's psychic attack only to miss the giant mechanical claw that flattened him against the side of the wall Jack had torn it off and used it to impale a YMIR mech as it just exploded killing the heretic.

Yadrell smiled as he said to himself "Just as planned." He fired a few high powered shots from his long las at the Defiler's turret thankful that it was made out of the station instead of the standard materials used to build them as it managed to damage the turret just enough to stop to from firing "Pull!" he shouted out loud.

Adam rose out of his position and used a biotic pull just pulling Winter out from her cover as the clawed hand. The turret reloaded as he prepared to fire, but it was too late as the weapon went off. The weapon clicked as a rocket fired out hitting the defiler dead on as a massive light erupted as everyone took cover except for the LOKI mechs. The station seemed to shake as bits of shrapnel flew about in the air as Winter screamed in pain. Once the explosion ended everything had been destroyed expect for the defiler which tried to crawl towards them despite its heavily damaged state.

Yadrell looked up as a mechanical claw rushed towards them. He fired a blast as it fell past them crashing into the area were Jack was last scene as it formed a bridge between the two levels. Yadrell ran over to Adam and Winter as he fired a few rounds from one of his spare pistols not bothering to see if they hit as he hopped it would slow it down.

Adam smiled when he saw him as Winter was bleeding badly as he said "She took a hit and I managed to stop the bleeding with a shot of medi gel, but I'll need some help getting her out of here."

Yadrell grabbed her and without being asked as they both carried her towards the mechanical claw from the ship as they could hear the dreaded defiler clawing faster towards them. Adam used a biotic push to get her to the upper level as they both climbed up as the defiler managed to catch up to them and swing it's claw at the structure. Yadrell managed to get up first as he held out his hand and grabbed onto to Adam as the bridge they had used to get up there had just collapsed. Yadrell grunted as he managed to pull Adam high enough for him to climb back up on his own as they both got up and found Jack under attack by a swarm of LOKI mechs.

Yadrell fired an barrage of psychic blasts as Adam laid down covering fire for Jack as the three of them managed to finish them off. She turned around and looked at them in rage as Yadrell just remembered they had Cerberus symbols on their armor and Cerberus had fracked up most of her life.

Jack shouted in rage "What the hell do you want?"

Adam shouted back "We just saved your ass!"

Jack didn't seemed impressed as she replied "They were already scrap. They just didn't know it. Now, what the hell do you want?"

Yadrell took a few steps forward and said "To get you fraking off this station in one piece!"

Jack chuckled as she said "You have some speech impediment? I'm say this once. I'm not going anywhere with you. You're Cerberus."

The station intercom laughed as it replied "And I'm the fracking Emperor. Yadrell's Chaos heretic and I can't let any of you leave. I need just a few more souls."

Jack looked up and shouted "What the fuck?"

More of the station claws had started to appear expect this had the taint of chaos as they were now razor sharp or had guns sprouting out of them.

Adam shouted "Run!"

He grabbed Winter and dragged her along with him as everyone took cover as the gun fire started to tear apart the remaining windows as they ran towards the docking ring. The mechincal claws chased after them down the corridor as Jack unleashed some of her biotic might along with Yadrell trying to force them back.

Yadrell shouted at the top of his voice "You think Cerberus is bad? I can personally assure you that _they_ are worse!"

Jack shouted back in frustration as a bullet clipped her side "You show up in a Cerberus ship to take me away somewhere. You think I'm stupid? I'll take a chance with the escape pods first!"

One of the claws moved out ahead of the others nearly grabbing her only for Yadrell to pull her to the side and fire a blast into the celling causing the area above them to collapse. Jack used her power to rip the claw apart and send it back flying at the other as the systems went out as the area behind them was now sealed.

Yadrell smiled as he said "The escape pods are on the other side of the ship. My ship is the only one off and I am asking for your help after I helped saved your fraking life."

He pulled out a pack of medi gel and handed it to her as she quickly applied it to the wound. She wasn't happy, but she wasn't going to try to kill him just yet.

Jack looked towards the end of the corridor and said "Look, you want me to come than make it worth my fucking time!"

Yadrell took a deep breath and said "Join my team and you get access to Cerberus's files. Maybe you find whatever you are looking for at least know what Cerberus has on you."

Jack looked at Yadrell as if he was stupid and said "You giving that right of the bat?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "It will be a lot easier to understand when you're on the fracking ship, but yes I will give you the files even if I have to giving you them by hand. Do we have a deal?"

The area behind them started to shake as the intercom spoke "You won't escape our wrath. The planet you called Exterminates has survived as you simply thrust it into the warp. It will come out with our brethren as we _will_ have our revenge!"

Jack looked back at the corridor and quickly said "Only because it's the closest escape path, but you better be straight-up with me. So let's get moving!"

Yadrell ran with her as they managed to reach the docking port and got onto the imperial ship as the station screamed in rage.

* * *

"What's going on?" Yadrell shouted as Jack followed behind him

The pilot navigated through the controls and said "That energy you warned us about. It's getting bigger as the station is starting to grow guns."

"Then fucking shoot the dam thing!" Jack shouted and then turned to Yadrell "You can start with the files along with what the fuck that thing is!"

Yadrell raced over to one of the open seats and said "Crazed chaos heretic who fracked around with the warp and started fusing daemons to the station to build a battle ship."

"You're got to be fucking kidding me!" Jack shouted back as she looked at the station.

Purgatory started to explode as rifts appeared outside of the station. Swarms of daemons converged on it as the station itself tried to fight back, in a futile attempt. It didn't take long for the daemons to overrun it and drag the station with them back into the warp. The few rifts left started to disappear as there didn't seem to be any trace left of the station.

The pilot started to have the ship move away from the site and said "Well at least we don't have to worry about clean up. At least we didn't have to blow up a planet with this incident."

Yadrell took a deep breath as he started to relax. The daemons went after the last heretic because he was the only soul left on the station and after all of these years they were properly hunger. He was just thankful that there were only unaligned daemons running about until a thought struck him. The moments that helped cleanse some of the problems that the warp had never happened here so while the four chaos gods and their daemons didn't exist here. There was a possibly that the other unaligned daemons or entities in the warp like the Ebon Geist were still around. Just because the warp was calmer it didn't mean it wasn't dangerous anymore as he made a mental note to check the extranet just to be safe.

Jack looked at where the station was and said "What the fuck happened while I was in cold sleep."

Yadrell smiled as he said "A lot. I guess we might as well start the tour and try to answer a few of your questions because it's going to be a long day."


	9. Chapter 9

Warp Effect ch9

_Author note – I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop_

_New chapter up. People get injured, as Jack picks a fight. The next mission has a bit of a problem as the a few mercs start a small war/battle between each other. Yadrell tries to get the team together. Jack gets some new equipment and the boards will go up in flames as Adam and Yadrell debate on who would win. A Krogan or an Ork? Also some people die and a death world is found in Mass Effect. (Complete with lousy weather, hostile beasts, and the fact no one really wants to live on the planet except the people on it.)_

Yadrell sat down as he rubbed his head as he looked over the reports. Ms Winter had lost her right hand as apparently not even the omni gel could help fix the damaged caused by the shrapnel of the defiler as they had to remove her hand in order to stop the infection. So now he was being put in charge of help sorting the resources they had and to lend a few points of his expertise in the possibility of being able to build a defiler like the one they fought or possibly a better one.

Then there was the troop management and training to ensure that if another incident involving chaos happened again they would have a decent sized force to stop it faster. Even then there were the plant scans that were being requested along with resources being requested for certain projects and possible upgrades to the current weapons. It was no wonder that most bureaucrats went mad and could possibly lose a planet in the paper work as the continues reports and requests from a single ship were far greater than the ones he had to deal with when working with the forces of chaos. Then again they really didn't tend to work together, but move in the same general direction.

The door opened up as Jack marched in shouting "I said really access not this bull shit you're giving me!"

Yadrell sighed as he said "You reached the part about how the ship came to this universe."

Jack nodded as she said "You expect to tell me that the entire galaxy didn't notice an entire planet missing or these bug aliens that were infesting the planet?"

"First of all the Tyranids came from the other universe so no one here has ever really encounter them before." Yadrell replied "As for why no one has noticed… it's because no one fracking cares. You can check the extranet and see the battle of the citadel as the geth invaded and the massive ship called Sovereign. The Citadel believes that it was some advanced weapon the geth made and that they couldn't possible build another and make another attack on the citadel again. Claiming a planet had blown up due to "unknown reasons" isn't that far of a stretch. Heck an entire race is going around invading human colonies collecting humans for something and the Citadel writes it off as random pirate attacks."

Jack shook her head and said "That's old shit. This looks like it came out of a bad fantasy novel."

Yadrell smiled as he quickly added "But which is more believable? That somehow another powerful biotic came having weapons much older and more advanced than the Prometheans that was kept secret on some planet… or just another one of life's sick jokes that doesn't make any fraking sense like why every race seems to be attracted to those blue chicks."

Jack chuckled as she said "Boobs and asses. Not that complicated."

Yadrell frowned as he said "You do realize that they have different version of what is "attractive" and yet every race finds them attractive. I mean I'm not even sure some of them have "boobs and asses" as you put it. At least daemons being real makes more sense."

Jack shrugged as she replied "So does this mean you already cracked the big mystery of if there is a fucking hell or an afterlife for that matter."

Yadrell paused for a moment and said "Now you are fraking with me. How in the warp could you go around questioning if you even have a soul or a life after death?"

Jack was about to reply but she could feel it in her gut that Yadrell was actual serious. To him this wasn't so much as common knowledge as it was common sense. Still she couldn't help but feel annoyed at him. She was the most powerful biotic in the galaxy (no matter what anyone else said) and yet this freak didn't even seem to give a dam about it!

Jack flexed her fingers and said "Look I've joined cults who spout end of the world crap. Ditched the cult and kept the hair cut. Let's just have a sparring match and see whose better."

Yadrell looked at the personal file for a moment as he thought about it. The next recruitment mission would only have Adam at his side unless he let Jack join the mission. A sparring match would be a good way to get an idea. Besides he didn't like how she kept eyeing him as her thoughts were a mess or she actually knew he could read her mind and was doing it on purpose. Somehow he doubt it as it was more likely that she was just a little bit overwhelmed at the moment, but it never hurt to be cautious.

* * *

Both of them stood in the training room as most of the items and been pushed aside or stored somewhere else for the duration of the match. Already a group had started to form as some of the crew had come to watch as they placed bets on who would win. Yadrell wasn't bothered by their presence so much as he was bothered by the scientists who were getting notes ready to compare the two and analyze the match for significant data.

Jack didn't seem to like them much either as of the scientists that looked at her directly received a very threatening glare that promised lots of violence if they didn't stuck their eyes somewhere else. On the other hand she did seem to look forward to the fight or at least fighting in general.

Yadrell was wearing a standard imperial guard suit as even though it was a sparring match he didn't trust Jack to take it ease. Besides he wanted to make sure that the armor would do well against a Biotic and testing it out against the strongest biotic would ensure a good test and more importantly if it did do any real damage than it was done to a spare suit instead of his storm trooper armor. At his side was a simple sparing pistol they had developed. It was nowhere near as powerful as a regular weapon, but it would leave a nasty jolt or sting if it hit. It was one of the few weapons they had been able to rebuild, but then again it wasn't that useful as there were plenty of real weapons better than the training ones. Jack didn't bother using one of the sparing pistols as she planned to use her biotic powers against him. He just hoped the padding they put in the room would help against any nasty falls.

The bell struck as Jack immediately attacked him with a biotic push as he finished his chant and slammed the sword made out of warp energy into the floor as the force dragged him across the floor, but it didn't send him flying like it should have. A bit of the padding beneath their feat had been torn apart, but it wasn't ended in one move.'

Jack shouted out in surprise "Shit! How the fuck did you do that?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "It's not my only trick."

He began to chant as the floor around Jack started to tear apart as chains were formed as they tied themselves around her. She struggled as the chains tightened as Yadrell pulled out the training pistol. She shouted in anger as suddenly a force enveloped him as it crushed the pistol as Yadrell jumped back the shields on his suit went out. Everyone else backed away as they could see the gloves were coming off as the scientist made sure their recording equipment was working as the focused on the fight.

Yadrell tossed the broken pistol away as he summoned his sword again saying "Breaking my gun was kind of a cheap trick don't you think?"

Jack managed to rip apart the chains as she shouted back "And these cheap magic tricks are really getting on my nerves."

Yadrell smiled as he replied "At least you know I'm not a biotic Jennifer."

Jack screamed in hatred as Yadrell just realized he said the wrong thing. She struck the ground as a shockwave tore through the padding as it went flying at him. Yadrell switched to the offence as he fired a psychic blast tearing through them as he moved back as she came rushing in. Her fist came close to his face as he moved his sword to blow the blow only to forget that she was a biotic as she unleashed a blast sending him off the floor and flying at the wall.

Yadrell switched tactics as he knew he stood no chance on close combat as orbs of fire manifested around him. With a snap of his fingers bolts of fire shot out from them and struck Jack's shields as they flared up protecting her from the blow as she ducked behind some of the torn up padding that had formed together. Her shields started to flare as the fire started to consume her cover as Yadrell fell to the ground as he focused on the next attack.

Jack screamed out loud as she ran got out from behind her cover and charged at him. She ducked past the next streak of flames as she focused her power and stuck Yadrell between his legs. He winched for a moment as he fell to the ground as everyone else groaned in pain only for Jack to make another punch in the same area that sunk him into the padding covering the floor as he passed out.

Adam came forward and shouted "You won so stop beating on him!"

Jack took a couple of deep breaths and said "So much for your magic tricks."

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose and shouted back "This was supposed to be a sparring match and you turned it into an all-out brawl just because he called you some name?"

Jack glared at Adam as she said "I don't know where the fuck he got that name from, but don't _ever_ use it again!"

"Fine psycho bitch!" Adam replied as he moved to help cart Yadrell to the infirmary.

Jack stormed out of the room as Adam moved Yadrell onto a stretcher. The armor had taken a few beatings, but it was what properly saved his life. The only question now was how long it would take for him to recover and what they were going to do with Jack. To Adam she was a loose cannon more likely to cause just as much harm to them as she could do to the enemy. In fact he wouldn't mind just dumping her back in some Cerberus jail and being stuck in a two man team until they recruited someone else or for Ms. Winter's recovery.

Still the one thing she did have was power as Adam wouldn't have been able to get the same results with his training as she had or any of the other trained biotics they had on the ship. If anything having someone like her on the team might actually be needed if they ran into any more incidents from the other universe or their fight against the collectors as Adam highly doubted that Shepard had anyone as powerful as Jack for her team. Of course the only problem would be making her work with the team.

* * *

Yadrell groaned as he woke up next to a surprised medic and slowly said "What the frack hit me."

Adam quickly rushed into the room as he shouted "What do you mean he's… holy shit you are awake!"

Yadrell rubbed his sore body as he said "So I'm guessing I lot the sparing match."

Adam looked at Yadrell in confusion as he said "Honestly after the beating we were not expecting you to wake up for at least a full day and I will admit I have doubts about her joining the team after what had happened during the sparing match."

Yadrell closed his eyes as he said "She does have a bit of an anger issue, but at least she has self-control."

Adam shook his head as he replied "She slammed you into the ground and hit you below the belt _twice_ leaving you stuck in the floor from the impact of the blows."

Yadrell simply shrugged as he said "And I almost accidently set her on fire. If she really wanted to kill me she could have considering the fact she tore three YMIR mechs in half."

Adam coughed as he slowly said "And the fact she hit you below the belt _twice_?"

Yadrell started to get out of the bed and said "The first was a given as she wanted to end the match quickly and fighting dirty usually helps. Heck I've been through worse with an ex-girlfriend and it taught me a lesson in not being over confident. The _second_ blow was because she is a bitch."

The doctor muttered as he looked through the reports and said "I thought for sure that you would be out for a lot longer."

Yadrell moved to gather his clothes and said "If you can walk than your good. Otherwise you tended to live a short life. Also the extra padding helped out a lot. So what is the status of the mad scientist?"

Yadrell closed the curtains as he got changed as Adam checked the status of Siu Zixin the former Eclipse merc only to pause for a moment as he saw Ms. Winters lying in one of the beds. Her health was improving, but she wasn't awake yet as they had managed to remove the unknown infection and confirm it was gone with both the medical equipment from their universe and the other universe. Yadrell came out from the curtains as he was now dressed in a Cerberus uniform as he seemed to be regretting that he wasn't wearing the storm trooper armor or at least the basic imperial guard armor.

Adam went back to the report and said "Things have deteriorated since the last status check. His compound has been found as a merc war if going around as they are kill each other trying to be the one who captures him to either torture or kill him."

Yadrell strapped a las pistol to his side and said "Why don't they just go in together and overwhelm him?"

Adam couldn't help but be impressed as he said "He is good at what he does. Anyone one of the mercs that starts to make an alliance quickly gets shot. Most of the time it's done to make it look the other side shot them during a peace agreement so that they attack them in rage. Other than that he is being held up in his base which is something in between a bunker and a factory so he keeps producing more robots to replace the ones he lost. As for the turrets… It's only a matter of time before Siu Zixin runs out of ammo for his turrets or the mercs get angry enough to bring in bigger weapons to level the place."

Yadrell pulled out his copy of the reports and said "What about the location of the base? Is it near any locations filled with people or near some city or colony?"

Adam shook his head and said "Some back world planet the Citadel didn't think was valuable along with most people. Your records would classify it as a Death World. The world is a freezing wasteland. Ice covers most of the planet and anyone not wearing protective gear will die from exposure in a few minutes. The wildlife that managed to survive is deadly and just to show how fucked up the planet is there are a couple of locations that have constant volcanic activity leaving it a burning wasteland instead of a freezing one."

Yadrell shrugged as he said "So we can pull out the special guns without too much trouble. Just keep the ship on standby to eliminate anyone else that tried to flee the planet. So where is the bunker located?"

Adam looked back at the report and said "Interestingly enough on a mountain range that used to be an active volcano until he used it for his base. The planet seems to be rich in resources and his compound is the only place that can actually mine the planet which is the main reason why none of the mercs had tried blowing the place up yet."

Yadrell smiled as he said "Get the squads to increase their training with the las weapons and check if we have any else wants to give a Chimera a test drive.

Adam paused for a moment and then remembered that there were a lot of soldiers aboard the ship and a lot of powerful weapons which would properly make short work of the mercs. He was just expecting some covert mission to sneak into the base and get their latest recruit out before the mercs attacked. Yadrell on the other hand just planned to wipe them all out and kick down the front door if needed.

Yadrell shook his head and said "But we will be stuck going in first to disable the Anti-aircraft guns to ensure that the rest of the vehicles can be deployed safely."

"And who are we taking?" Adam asked as he already knew the answer.

Yadrell sighed as he said "You, me, Jack, and… what is the name of the pilot?"

Adam shrugged as he said "Don't know. Everyone just calls him pilot including some of the other pilots."

"Well we need him to drive the Drake." Yadrell added "I do not plan on leaving the vehicle until we are at the base."

Yadrell left the room as he went towards the more difficult task of having Jack join the team. The first thing he did was return to his room and switch back to the storm trooper armor just in case she was still in a bad mood. Once he had finished he walked straight to the only place where nobody really visited due to the fact it was where the ship's navigator used to be. Even then it was the only room that still had a touch of the warp and where the bodies that failed to make the transition to the current universe had to be scrapped off the walls. So they sealed of the room treating it like a grave as they claimed they would go back to investigate it just _after_ they finished checking the rest of the ship and all the projects they had left involving the ship and it's technology.

Yadrell stopped by the armory and pulled out the equipment he was going to present to Jack. He had no idea what she normally used so he decided to play it safe and take one of the shotgun Adam had used during the last mission along with the modified hand gun, imperial las gun, and of course a chain sword. Considering how she seemed to like to get close and how she enjoyed violence she would properly like one considering that the chain swords could cut through countless things in this universe as long as it had a working power cell. He held the sword in his hand as he started to wonder if it would be a good idea to give such a dangerous weapon to her and then thought about how dangerous she could be if she wasn't on his side as he still had his book of spells which included curses that he could use on Jack from the opposite side of the galaxy if she did become a problem.

He gathered all of the weapons together along with a Storm Trooper armor and Imperial guard armor as she could pick which one she wore. She could modify the armor as long as it gave her protection, but she wasn't going to be running around in what was left of her prison suit. He already had enough of that with Slaanesh cultist and they didn't tend to last long on the battlefield unless they were a perfection nut and they tended to be more trouble than the crazed Khorne berserkers.

It didn't take long to navigate the ship and find the room as he could hear Jack thrashing about. He waited for the commotion to calm down. Before he entered the room as he could feel the faint traces of the warp still hanging about it as the veil was weak here, but not even close to the veil back home. It was properly another reason why nobody stayed in the room for too long.

Jack shouted back "What the fuck do you want?"

Yadrell paused for a moment as he selected his words and said "Hearing voices or seeing things just out of your sight?" Jack didn't say anything "That's due to the weakened veil between this room and the warp as it tends to attract attention in the warp. Nothing dangerous mind you, but just one of the reasons why this room is left empty."

"They even have a fucking haunted room?" Jack muttered to herself "What the hell has happened since I was out?"

Yadrell skipped past the question and said "If you're looking for an empty room that no one is using or goes to there is a spare room section of the ship I can show you. Mostly I use it for peace and quiet as it also tends to be a bit better than your current lodgings."

Jack glared at him as she replied "That's where you keep you black cauldron along with you pointed hat?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "And where I build light sabers and shout _unlimited power _when I shoot lighting out of my fingertips." Jack couldn't help but chuckle at the comment "Yes I have spent some time watching a few vids since my stay here and that one caught my attention."

Jack stared at the weapons and said "And what are all of those for? Are you mad that a girl beat you?"

Yadrell shrugged as he replied "Better than looking like a love struck fool that's trying to buy your affection, but seriously this is because you made the cut for the team." Yadrell dumped them onto a table left in the room "Take what you want as you will need them for the next mission, but you are required to use one of the armored suits."

Jack shook her head and said "Barriers take down bullets in this universe mage. Wearing armor doesn't help much if they get past them."

Yadrell picked up the las pistol and fired it past her face as it hit the wall. She stared at him in surprise as she couldn't believe what she just saw. More importantly the Kinetic barriers didn't react as that shot would have killed her.

Yadrell handed her the pistol and said "These don't care about your universe's barriers." He pulled out the chaos bolt pistol "And this is one of the bigger guns and while it may activate your kinetic barriers they don't last long or do much against it. We already tested it out against a few blue sun mercs."

Jack nodded as she looked back down at the weapons and said "And you have a sword… While it does look neat what good is it going to do on a battle field?"

Yadrell held the blade as he said "For when the enemy gets close and so far it has been able to cut easily through walls, mechs, and that one incident with an enemy Mako. The better question would be what it _can't_ cut through."

Jack smiled as he took the blade and hit the switch as the chain sword roared into life as she said "Now you're just trying to sweat talk me into joining your team. If you have all this fancy tech why didn't you just go pirate and have a good time? I can tell you just how fucked up Cerberus really is."

"Good." Yadrell calmly said to Jack's surprise "I would rather get an honest opinion than the stranded bullshit their cheerleader feed me. The real reason is that this is just one ship… and there is an entire invasion fleet of reapers like Sovereign coming to purge this galaxy." Yadrell pulled out the data slate of the image of Sovereign attacking the citadel "Expect most of them will bigger than that one and there from your universe as Cerberus is the only group who isn't sticking their heads in the sand as they are funding my operation. I want to ensure these Reapers lose so I can enjoy my new life here. Any other questions?"

Jack rubbed her head as she said "So are space wizards a normal thing now?"

Yadrell shook his head as he replied "I'm the only one unless someone else fell through to this universe… though a planet might fall through, but that's properly a lie. We are setting up some plans incase it's true through… and before you ask I can't teach you any space wizard magic techniques. That requires something that this universe doesn't have or a really bad encounter with a daemon which you defiantly do not want."

"Does your bag of tricks include reading minds?" Jack said angrily "Because…"

"Of course not." Yadrell interrupted as he lied through his teeth "Everybody ask that's after they find out I'm real, but only after they know that I while I can see the future I can't give the next numbers for the lottery."

Jack laughed as she said "Really? You can fucking see the future?"

Yadrell sighed as he went over the speech "It's not really that grate. All you really get to see are a few moments and usually they are not even what you are looking for. What you do see can change since that future involved you _not_ looking into the future and there usually is a detail wrong with it because it involves looking into the warp since time doesn't work normally in there. Honestly it's about as useful as a mission briefing giving you a basic idea while being useless and missing a few major details when you actually do the mission."

"Huh… Now that I actually believe." Jack said with a hint of disappointment "That was how you found out about that name."

Yadrell shrugged as he said "Like I said. Missing a few _major_ details in application. I can show you to the other room after your done picking out your equipment. We are about to do another mission that is going to involve a lot of combat if you want to join."

Jack walked over to the table and said "I'll give your team a shot as I could use a good fight. So show me to that room you said."

Yadrell paused for a moment as he noticed Jack didn't pick up any of the weapons and said "Are you going to be taking any of the weapons or a suit of armor?"

"Are you kidding?" Jack said with amusement as she pulled a bead cover off "I'm taking them all."

She dumped all the equipment into it and swung it over her back like some old cartoon thief as Yadrell turned into the hallway and smiled. He just might actually like her after all.

* * *

Everyone prepared for their trip to the planet as they loaded their equipment into the Drake. The Chimera combined with Cerberus tech hovered as the multi laser reinstalled. The armor had been painted with winter camo to help it blend in. Most of all it lacked the Cerberus symbol since they properly wanted to ensure it got to its destination in secret as all the other vehicles had the symbol slapped on its side.

Yadrell carried his array of weapons as he strapped himself into the vehicle as Adam followed behind him. Jack had also decided to come along expect she wore the storm trooper armor and made a few changes with the paint scheme. Instead of the standard black paint job she painted the helmet to look like a flaming skull as the areas around her chest and rear had been painted white to help show she was a girl as the words Psyco Bitch had either been painted on by her or left as a prank by someone else as she decided to keep them anyway. Jack carried the shotgun and chain sword at her side along with her pistols.

Jack chuckled as she said "At least I'm not going to freeze my ass off on this planet."

Yadrell groaned as she strapped herself into the seat as they prepared to go planet side. The planet itself was labeled Daoriva by some random alien explore or Citadel designation and never made pronounceable since nobody wanted the planet or froze to death trying to use it until now. Everyone else on the ship decided to call the planet as Niflheim.

Yadrell held his breath as the Drake had been released into the planet's atmosphere. Wind shear struck the vehicle as the Pilot managed to make the necessary adjustments to ensure it landed safely. When it finally arrived safely on the ground they took a look out the window and couldn't see anything besides whiteout conditions made by the blizzards which were apparently common on the planet.

The pilot muttered as he said "Come on girl… Come on. Yes!"

The systems lit up as warmth returned to the inside of the ship as the digital map marked their location. Apparently they had landed near where the base was letting them arrive there in a few hours. The pilot started to move the vehicle forward as everyone tried to pass the time in their own way.

Adam spoke first as he said "Alright. Orks vs Krogan. Personally I say Krogan would win."

Yadrell shook his head and replied "Orks would beat them senseless. They are much stronger and the crazy stuff that actually works for them makes them a pain in the butt."

Adam chuckled as he said "But they're so stupid. I mean at least a Krogan knows tactics and can move in a group. Even then the ork psykers tend to have their heads explode from _their_ _own_ power while a krogan can use biotics without any real problems."

Yadrell simply shrugged as he stated "But the orks outnumber them and get stronger when there are more orks around."

"And the genophage neutered the Krogan otherwise they would have swarmed the galaxy like the orks did." Adam countered "Being able to stop them before they became a problem is a point on our side."

"And orks reproduce by spores so even if you kill them all another patch will come back in a few years on the planet they invaded." Yadrell countered "I mean they have tied rockets to asteroids and slammed them into planets in order to invade them."

"That doesn't sound too stupid." Adam guessed in confusion "I mean the batarians had tried that."

Yadrell closed his eyes as he said "But the orks ride the asteroid to the planet even when the dam rock hit the planet. Did the batarians do that?"

Jack couldn't help but laugh as she said "How the fuck did they manage to survive for so long?"

Yadrell shrugged again as he said "We have deamons tear people apart and try to devour our souls with aliens from another galaxy wanting to devour us. Asking how a giant muscle bound monster that loves to fight and breed to fight managed to survive isn't that surprising."

Adam shook his head as he said "Still say the Krogan would win even if it just came down to a Krogan battle master vs one of those ork war bosses."

Their vehicle stopped as everyone took a look outside to see what was going on. The whiteout blizzard had been replaced with lots of steam as lava was pouring out of the side of the mountain and hitting the snow. What had surprised them was that this event had attracted the local creatures as they came to the lava and started to attack each other for some reason.

One of the creatures bigger than their vehicle came charging towards them only for the pilot to activate the hover jets to make the vehicle jump onto the mountain side as the creature ran into the lava. It howled in pain as different creatures jumped out from the lava tearing the bigger one apart as they dragged it back into the lava killing it. Two of the snow creatures had tried to climb up the mountain side to reach them only to slide back down and then fight each other.

Jack whistled as she said "Dam. I guess this helps explain why nobody wanted to try to settle down here."

The pilot nodded as he responded "If the weather doesn't kill you the beasts will. Any idea what they are people?"

"Just stay up here until they finished slaughtering each other.' Yadrell quickly ordered "Once they finished we can just kill the remaining ones with the multi lasers and just collect a few samples for the cog heads to examine."

One of the lava creatures turned to the ones from the snow and spewed lava at it while two other creatures pulled the one from the lava onto the snow as they tore it apart. Both sides were covered in a sort of carapace to protect them from the cold or the heat. The ones from the snow seemed more lizard like and muscle bound as they ran on four legs and crushed there pray with their powerful jaws. The ones from the lava looked more like insects. They had multiple limbs with sharp talon like blades attached at the end of each limp as they spewed lava at their foes and worked together. The largest one of them to their surprise actually used a biotic push knocking down some of the larger snow like creatures and used a biotic pull to drag the smaller ones into the lava to be torn apart by the other lava creatures.

The battle between both sides lasted for an hour until the lava finally ended as the lava creatures were overwhelmed by the snow creatures. Before the snow creatures could enjoy their victory they were torn apart by the Drake's multi lasers. One of the bigger ones managed to survive the initial blow and charged towards them, but it didn't last long under the assault as it collapsed.

Yadrell couldn't help but nod as he said "It's officially a death planet now."

"What?" The pilot asked in confusion.

"Old joke." Yadrell said with regret. "It was a joke with the rogue trader ship I was on that any planet that had wildlife that could survive a round of multi lasers could then be called a death planet instead of just having bad weather."

Adam looked back at the map and said "Well that explains why they don't have any scouts or guards around the mountain."

Yadrell shrugged as he simply replied "Well we still have to wait a day and find the anti-aircraft guns. Their ships are about to arrive and start dropping off new people and then leave for a few days giving us enough time to wipe them all out."

Jack lay back in her seat as she said "So what can we do to pass the time?"

Adam looked back at the data slate that he had brought with him and said "Alright. Why send space marines in Terminator armor to search these "space hulks" when the suits take up the entire corridor and the Nids can tear through them with ease? Why not just send a bunch of regular soldiers with flamethrowers or bolt guns since they would be easier to replace than the space marines and their fancy armor while also being able to cover a lot more ground?"

Jack closed her eyes as she tried to get some sleep as the two went into their argument. It was going to be a while before they go to do any real action.

* * *

The current commander of the Blue Suns was Ephis Deryn. A turian soldier who had been promoted to commander due to the fact he was 18th in line in the chain of command and everyone else above him kicked the bucket. Unlike the others he was not exactly thrilled as he wanted reinforcements to arrive so he could hand the job of commander to anyone else. He had lasted over three months on this crazed ball of ice and while every other commander died and was quickly replaced usually by someone command brought in with their reinforcements. Being in command here was like having a bulls eye painted on the back of their head.

One of the LOKI mechs walked up to him and said "Quarry. Stat uf ew wrok eres…" Ephis grunted as he gave the mech a good slap across the head "Error! Status fixed. Status of new arrivals?"

Ephis shook his head as he said "They leave us in command with defective drones to hunt down a mad man producing YMIR mechs on a daily basis. Even then all they do is run the facility to ensure we don't freeze our asses off or be swarmed by the monsters outside."

The LOKI mech walked towards the exit as the doors opened revealing the carnage outside. Ephis ducked underneath his desk and fired a few shots to keep the enemy outside and possibly get one with a lucky shot. One of the vorcha managed to get in only to be take our by Ephis's hand gun as the doors resealed themselves as the noise from the battle outside seemed to die down.

Ephis rubbed his head as he said "By the spirits how did this happen? Every day the fighting outside gets worse as no one seems to be able to get inside those gates."

He chuckled as remembered he had been given orders to prevent the other factions from getting inside. Apparently when Siu Zixin couldn't defend the base by himself he had revealed that he had access to a lot of the other merc faction's dirty secrets so that no one wanted anyone else to get inside to get those secrets besides them. The only question was when one of them finally managed to get through or until someone simply gave up and would try to blow the place up.

Ephis heard the door click as he pulled out his machine gun and opened fire at the door. This time it was two Eclipse asari commandos as they had jumped through the doorway when one of the LOKI mechs came through. Ephis fired the machine gun as he managed to kill one before the other one slammed him against the wall. He dropped a flash grenade blinding the other asari before he tossed a frag grenade at her position blowing her up.

The LOKI mech turned its head towards him and said "Refinery two took slight damage from accidently miss fire. Recommend discipline checks to parties involved. People can be replaced easily, but refineries are not."

The turian grunted as he replied "Can you keep the dam doors sealed and prevent any more bots from walking through?"

The LOKI mech turned back to the door way and said "Status of station needs to be kept notice of. You may never know when an assault from the beasts may strike."

The door opened up again as a Krogan smiled. Ephis swore under his breath that he would either kill the programmer of the LOKI mechs first or he would have them reprogramed to have at least some common sense. The building was a good place to defend with heavly fortified walls and doorway just as long as the LOKI mechs didn't keep opening the door up every fucking thirty seconds as he was forced to duck behind a wall to avoid a round from a krogan shotgun tearing through his body.

Ephis muttered to himself "Can this day get any fucking worse?" The alarms flared "That wasn't a suggestion asshole!"

The automated system went off saying "Warning. Warning. Lava flow being diverted. Please move to a safe location to avoid immanent death."

Ephis saw the doors open again as the krogan reloading his shotgun. The turian charged the krogan knocking back out of the doorway. The krogan smiled as the shotgun was right in front of Ephis's head as the trigger was pulled just after the doors slammed shut taking the blunt of the blow. He wiped his head as he managed to avoid a close call back there as he could hear the krogan shouting lots of profanity outside. Ephis moved back into cover as he waited for reinforcements to arrive and hopefully get him off this dam planet and even if he had to go back to scrubbing toilets for the rest of his career. At least that job didn't try to kill him every few seconds.

The doors opened up again as the LOKI mech said "Package from guest has been delivered." The krogan laughed as he ran inside as the doors shut behind him. "Please sign to notify that delivery had been made."

Ephis shouted out loud "Son of a" as he was cut short by the blast of the shotgun.

* * *

Dorlik Renas was a simple eclipse merc. Grant it Salarians didn't get to live long, but that never bothered him and being a merc made a lot of money as they tended to live short careers either dying or having enough money to retire. Being a merc suited him just fine as they had to be quick thinking and decide things in short amounts of time as even the simplest of actions had large effects like right now. He could leave the stairway up to allow himself to use them again when the lava would be diverted again or he could just blow the connection supports letting all the enemy mercs fall into the lava killing them before they got up to where he was. So he shot the supports letting them all die a fiery death.

He turned to take a look at his surroundings and saw one of the LOKI mechs tossed out of the doorway before they were forced sealed to prevent any lava from coming inside the base. He knew a leader of the Blue Suns was staying inside the building and fighting a Blood Pack member. He also knew that a package was sent to him by one of the LOKI mechs since no one bothered to pay attention to them anymore. Right now the mech was left outside with the package as the lava was about to destroy both.

He talked to himself for a moment saying "Package could hold important material or worthless progress reports of mining operation. Risk of dropping to save package immense. Risk of losing valuable information that could end fighting or different side advantage more severe." He grabbed one of the robes left on the railing "Hope harness if sturdy."

Dorlik jumped down as he managed to avoid the lava and take the package from the LOKI mech after two shots in the chest. He quickly climbed back up the rope before the lava covered the ground destroying the LOKI mech and any evidence that the package had been stolen instead of being destroyed by the lava instead. Once he was back up top he checked the package as he notice a Cerberus symbol on it.

"Strange. Cerberus joined in fight or asking for alliance?" He said to himself "Blue suns have humans, but so does everyone besides blood pack. Cerberus is pro-human. Makes little sense to align to group unless they also have secrets to be kept hidden." He looked at the label in confusion "Do not open? Possible message to prevent LOKI mechs from opening package to preserve contents of package or possible trap. Decisions. Decisions."

One of the lava creatures popped out from underneath as it started to attack. Dorlik stopped thinking as he ran trying to avoid the creature. He dogged the attacks with ease as he managed to jump onto the closest building with ease and paused as two vorcha saw him. They smiled as the one of them used the flamethrower they had on Dorlik forcing him to jump to the side only for the second one to simply kick him over the edge as the box stayed on top of the building.

* * *

The krogan battle master sighed as he said "You brought me a box?"

The vorcha nodded as it quickly said "Important box!"

The krogan stared at the vorcha's burnt leg and said "What happened to your partner?"

The vorcha shrugged as it replied "Salarian got him while trying to defend box. It must be important for possible promotion right?"

The krogan moaned at the stupidity of the latest group of vorcha sent to him. Sure they made good meat shields and could handle a gun, but these vorcha were barely a step up from animals and were possibly the dumbest vorcha in the galaxy. Then again they didn't need brains to do their job since most of them were expected to die anyway.

The krogan opened up the box and said "It's empty."

The vorcha quickly shouted "Not open box!"

The krogan started to shout before he fell over as a hole was in the back of his head. Behind him a LOKI mech held a pickaxe covered in the krogan's blood. The vorcha tried to run only to have the pickaxe embedded in it's spine as the LOKI mech walked over to the box and shut it. The much pressed some random spots on the box as the Cerberus symbol changed into the Eclipse merc symbol.

The LOKI mech paused for a moment before it said "New orders uploaded. Commencing delivery to next designated target."


	10. Chapter 10

Warp effect ch 10

_Author note – I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop_

Yadrell couldn't help but whistle "That's a lot of bugs."

The areas around the anti-air craft guns were covered in lava as the lava creatures were slaughtering anyone that wasn't on high ground. The mercs had switched to larger guns to kill the creatures as they waited for the lava to drain away or cool down enough to force the creatures back down to where every they came from.

Adam walked back over to the Drake and said "Can you get a message back to the ship?"

The pilot nodded as he said "The equipment is ready. Through I should warn you that the lava may overheat the jump jets."

Jack reloaded her shotgun as she bluntly said "Meaning you don't want to scratch your ride."

The pilot shrugged as he replied "No offence but these are a lot harder to replace than people like you. Besides flying around in a single tank when everyone has rockets with lava spewing bugs isn't exactly the safest idea even if this is a lot sturdier than your average tank. One good spray leaves us stuck."

Yadrell lifted a bag full of explosives and said "On the bright side their not looking at us and we have enough explosives to take care of them."

The pilot chuckled as he replied "I'll make sure to let the cavalry know about the heat problem."

* * *

They had managed to get to the anti-aircraft guns without any problems and had just managed to set up one of the charges only for the lava to finish draining or cooling down just long enough for trouble to begin. The anti-aircraft guns started to fire into the sky as the Blue Suns started an assault against the Blood Pack in an attempt to seize control of the guns and have them stop firing at their ship apparently. This quickly became worse as the mercs started to rush over to the anti-aircraft guns to either defend them or to temporally stop them.

Yadrell grunted as a couple of stray bullets hit the boxes he was taking cover behind and said "Why couldn't they have waited for just a few more minutes?"

Jack laughed as she fired her new shotgun tearing apart a pair of vorcha and said "Because it wouldn't be half as fun! Bet I can kill more of them than you!"

Yadrell couldn't help but smirk as he pulled out his long shot and aimed at one of the barrels on the ground. A few blue sun mercs were taking cover nearby as they were shooting at a couple of vorcha being led by a krogan. Yadrell held his breath as he fired a shot nicking the barrel as it slowly started to leak pushing itself near one of the pillars holding a scaffolding up and exploded sending it crashing down on the group crushing them to death or stuck with pieces of metal pieced through their armor.

Jack looked back at Yadrell and replied "You want to play it that way?" She spotted one of the YMIR mechs shooting at the krogans and fired a las bolt from her las pistol as the mech started to self-destruct before she lifted it with her biotic power and hurled it at a group of krogan before it exploded taking them all out "Vorcha are 1 point. Mercs are 2 and krogan are 3."

Adam started to finish priming the explosives as he said "Why are krogan three points?"

A krogan shouted in rage "I will have your head for this!" He charged towards them smashing through everything like a bulldozer as the other krogan charged with him.

Jack smiled as she replied "That's why."

Yadrell started to fall back to the next anti-aircraft gun and shouted "Your crazy. We have a job to do!"

Jack fired a few more las bolts and replied "And I'm winning!"

The krogan reached their level and prepared to attack only for Jack to be pulled back by Adam as the anti-aircraft gun near her exploded as it came crashing down on the krogan. Jack looked behind her as Yadrell smirked as he shook the red detonator button used to activate the explosives.

Jack shook her head and replied "Alright, but next one I get to push the red button."

Yadrell nodded as he fired a las bolt at a blue sun that didn't bother taking cover and said "Deal… That also leaves me twelve points ahead of you if you don't count the explosion."

A ship appeared in the sky as it was taking heavy damage, but managed to drop a few blue sun makos along with a gunship before it rose back up. The vehicles landed hard on the ground as they opened fire on the blood pack members as the gun ship focused on their location as it prepared to open fire.

Adam grunted as he replied "How much are vehicles?"

Jack took a look around for some explosives and said "A lot… where is that."

Yadrell took a deep breath as he focused and said "Draw its attention for a moment."

Adam nodded as he moved away from them and fired off a few bullets drawing it's attention away for Yadrell to fire of a lightning bolt. The gunship's shields flared before they went out as Jack couldn't help but stare for a few second just before he fired a blast of energy which tore through the gunship sending it crashing back down to the ground.

Jack whistled "Any chance you could teach me that trick?"

Yadrell shook his head and replied "It's something you're born with or you get after a nasty encounter with the warp or a daemon."

"And which one are you?" Jack replied as she sent a shockwave down the scaffolding knocking off a group of mecs.

Yadrell smiled as he said "Just born with them like my good looks."

He tossed her the detonator as they both ran from the second anti-aircraft gun before she pushed the button. The explosion shook the scaffolding a bit as it came crashing down as Adam started to shout into his vox system for reinforcements. They ran towards the building connected to the scaffolding that used to be able to control the anti-aircraft guns as the enemy started to open fire on their position with the fallen makos.

They managed to make it inside as they shut the door behind and prepared for the next fight only to see that all of the Blood Pack members were already dead. One LOKI mech held a small clipboard as it stood next to a dead krogan.

The LOKI mech turned towards them and said "Previous supervisor has fallen ill. The next in command needs to fill out required paperwork for worker damage on safety defenses."

Adam looked around the room and said "What did they die from?"

The LOKI mech shrugged as it replied "Acute lead poisoning."

Yadrell fired a las bolt into the bot's head causing it to collapse as Adam shouted "Why the hell did you do that!"

Yadrell looked at the robot and said "It had a sense of humor. Those can't be trusted." He walked over to one of the chair "Now all we have to do is simply wait them out as the heavy guns will wipe out any resistance left."

Adam nodded as he took guard at one of the doors as Jack waited near the other entrance. It didn't take long for the enemy makos to start shooting at the building as it lasted for a few second before the lovely sound of multi las guns went off tearing apart the vehicles outside. It only took a minute before they had received confirmation that all of the enemies nearby had been killed and that they were going to start to cleanse the base.

After hearing that they all relaxed as they tried to figure out what to do next since everything was complete. The imperial vehicles or the hybrid attempts like the drake would easily crush the enemy. Then they could simply ask for Mr. Zixin to either open up the doors and walk out with them or they would blast the doors down and drag him out.

.

Break-

Zixin paced around in the room as he tried to figure out what to do. He had managed to keep the mercs at bay, but it was a battle he was slowly losing. The fact that one of the group had started to send in vehicles and larger guns should have marked the turning point and his imminent capture. Then Cerberus suddenly came and started to annihilate the other factions in mere seconds! The weapons they were using were simply impossible, but far too effective to be ignored. The design was unusual as they were more box like instead of the more sleek designs that the galaxy was using. Simply but they were to out of place to actually be real as someone would have spilled the secret to the rest of the galaxy, though he highly doubt they would leave anyone left alive here to say anything.

Zixin searched his database for the three Cerberus operatives who blew up the anti-aircraft guns as they made even less sense. Jack was easy to find with her criminal record, but her being a part of Cerberus seemed even more ridicules than laser weapons outside being real. Adam was listed under security detail, but that information was outdated since his last listed location was with a project that dealt with the geth husks drones than precision strikes, but then again there were a few parts missing between Adam's current records in Cerberus vs what he been able to steal or buy from the Shadow Broker.

The last one made the least amount of sense as there was plenty of active matching his description to current activates, but none going past the last two years as not even a name was listed. Either he had a very good cleaner who managed to erase his name from every record or he had been grown in a vat. Zixin paused for a moment as he thought about the idea as it wasn't that crazy. Some influential people had tried to create "perfect" children by genetically engineering them. Even then there had been a few cases of successful cloning attempts of lower life forms as it wouldn't be that far of a stretch to say he had been "born" just two years ago.

That would perfectly alright until it came up to the lightning bolt that had been fired. That was not some engineer using a fancy Omni tool gadget to create a fancy overload he knew for certain. Doing that as a biotic should be impossible as the amount of energy because no physical body is capable of generating that amount of energy. Sure there had been reports of a rachni queen with biotic powers, but not even they could "shoot lightning bolts" and considering the dozen other abilities that could be more easily used instead of wasting that energy for a single bolt of electric made it obvious that this wasn't a biotic or some new brand. Could Cerberus have tried to create some sort of new hybrid that was part human and part machine. In theory a machine or cyborg could do something like that, but that was considered ridicules right along with laser beams which currently happened to be tearing real people apart outside.

Zixin pinched the bridge of his nose and said "Has the fucking galaxy _really_ changed that much since I've been down here?"

"Unlikely" responded one of the LOKI bots "Otherwise the shadow broker would have sold the technology to at least a dozen other governments by now."

Zixin nodded as he said "You're properly right. Though considering how he has his fingers in just about everything it stands as a testament to Cerberus's security… Which brings up the question on why they are here?"

The LOKI bot shrugged as it replied "Break from information trade with Shadow Broker could mean they need information and you have been using secrets to buy yourself time."

Zixin chuckled as he said "Then they would have sent a com link or something. Possibly send regular troops in joining this merc war. They slaughtered everyone meaning something much bigger than a few minor secrets."

The LOKI bot looked down as it slowly said "Or maybe they wish to keep something secret which you might know or they might think you know."

Zixin gulped as he rubbed his neck and said "The only question is how will I ensure I keep my head?"

The LOKI bot looked over to the computers and said "Either offer a trade or set the base to go critical and try to escape with the ship since the anti-aircraft guns are down though the ship in orbit would be a problem."

Zixin smiled as he said "That isn't that hard to fix. Just make a few calls and let the mercs rush in."

The LOKI bot shook it's head as it replied "They wouldn't stand a chance."

Zixen simply shrugged saying "Doesn't matter. They send enough then they will either buy us the time we need when their blown out of the sky or Cerberus backs away to hid their new secret."

He would regret leaving this place since it had started to grow on him. It had rich resources and nobody bothered him leaving him to his research. Still he'd rather survive and try again somewhere else than die. The building started to shake for a few moments.

The LOKI bot hung it's head low as it said "The doors had just been blown as they are moving in by foot."

Zixen took a deep breath as he finished and said "I will try to see what they want to buy some time. If we are lucky it might not turn out so bad. If not then get the ship ready and make the volcano active since all we will have left is the crap shot."

The LOKI bot nodded as it went to work as Zixen headed to the upper levels.

* * *

Leonid hid behind a wall shaking in fear as he held the rocket launcher. He wasn't a fan of the constant fighting, but this was ridicules. The strange Cerberus vehicles made the fight impossible to win as the weapons tore through everything. So now they higher up were ordering everyone to use heavy weapons in an attempt to disable the vehicles that could just about destroy anything in one shot.

He head the vehicle's treads grinding against the ground crushing what ever unlucky soul had got stuck in them as it moved slowly across the battlefield trying to find it's latest target. Leonid peaked out from his cover as he saw the vehicle's turret aimed away from him. He picked up the rocket launcher and aimed at the wheels hopping to disable it's movement only for an explosion to strike the side of the vehicle. He started to cough for a few moments only for a blinding light to come out of the smoke carving through a near by building with ease. He quickly ducked behind cover as he stared through the newly formed crack in the wall and saw the smoke disappear. The vehicle was unharmed as the only damage the rocket had done was scratch the paint job.

Leonid flaunted himself against the ground as he couldn't help but shiver in fear as he heard the vehicle's treads start to move again. Only when the noise had ended did he managed to find the strength to turn on his radio as he prepared to report.

Leonid slowly said "The rockets were worthless. We are going to need bigger guns."

* * *

Roy laughed as he looked for the next target and said "Who knew bullets could be so deadly with out a Mass Effect field!" The enemy Mako didn't move as the force of the bullets had torn the vehicle in half. "Just think what we could do if Cerberus had enough of these bullets to go around!"

The vehicle lurched as a grinding sound came from underneath for a few moments before it ended as Jim laughed as the vehicle became level again. Roy turned the scope around only to see a YMIR mech with it's arm torn off as the broken limp had been crushed under the weight of the vehicle. The mech tried to open fire only to be torn apart by the heavy bolter gun as Roy had gently tapped the trigger.

Jim shouted back "Screw the bullets! Just look at this thing instead! It took a rocket to the face and I still was able to ram that thing without any problems. Hell it was just a large speed bump to this thing! As long as all the doors are shut nobody's going to be able to touch us much less harm us!"

The vox system shouted "Just remember to conserve ammo! The bolter rounds are harder to replace than you lot."

Roy sighed as he responded "So far heavy variant is ridicules. I just tore a Mako in half as it only took two bullets to bring down a YMIR mech!"

A different voice shouted on the vox system "And I tore a fucking building in half Roy with the multi-laser! My baby doesn't have a reload issue!"

Jim laughed as he shouted back "My baby can tear your baby apart!"

The original voice came back as the person shouted "You can argue about which one is better after the field test. We have just received new orders as the two of you are to be rerouted to new quadrants."

Roy looked through the scope again trying to see if he could get one more enemy and said "Who's sending us where?"

"Commander Yadrell is sending you to what he suspects to be a back door to the base." The voice responded "So unless you have any targets left in sight I suggest you start driving over there now."

Jim nodded as he started to make the course correction and said "Understood. This is Fire team 6 over and out... Any idea how he got this knowledge?"

Roy shrugged as he fired a round at a running vorcha and said "Any idea how these things work? I don't know, but they work just fine so follow the man's orders and hopefully we get to stay assigned to these vehicles."

Jim nodded as he said "Hopefully command will give these things Kinetic barriers after the mission is done."

Roy laughed as he shouted "You tried to run over a YMIR mech and won! Why does this need Kinetic barriers? Running Vorcha on your left."

Jim swerved left as they could hear the bones cracking underneath the vehicle and said "True, but it might keep the bodies out of the vehicle's treads. That or we wouldn't have to bother fixing the paint job after the end of each mission."

Roy gave a few pats on celling and said "Screw Kinetic barriers. Adamantium is the only way to go now!"

* * *

Yadrell took a few deep breaths as he waited as the dozen armed soldiers behind him stood in formation. It just felt strange to actually have the advantage for once as Jack didn't even bother looking serious as she was just leaning against a wall with her eyes shut as she guessed that the fighting was now all over. Adam was left communicating with the few soldiers left outside that were ensuring all the mercs had been either killed or left to freeze to death out on the planet.

A voice in front of them spoke "What is it that you want?"

Yadrell turned to see it was a LOKI bot with a screen attached to its head as Siu Zixin stared at them. Siu Zixin was a lot older than Yadrell had first suspected as the man's hair had turned gray as the front of his head was starting to go bald. Despite age creeping up on him the man's body was still fit as Yadrell would have guessed he had taken a few youth treatments if he didn't already know that this universe didn't have any of them. The part that interested Yadrell the most was Zixin's eyes.

He had the stare of fighting constant battles like most people had having to fight the endless wars. He didn't shy away from his defeat as he was ready to take them all out with him if he could possibly escape, but his eyes had also betrayed him. He stared hungrily at the las weapons like a tech priest at a space hulk. It didn't matter that the place was infested with gene stealers, orks, and creatures of the warp just so long as it held the lost technology that they craved. Zixin was practically licking his lips as he stared at the riffles.

Yadrell smiled as he said "I've seen worst first impressions. So do you know why we have come here?"

Zixin coughed for a moment and then slowly spoke as if each breath was his last "You've come… Cough… to ensure none of your sec… hack… secrets are revealed."

"The sick act is demeaning to us both." Yadrell spoke with annoyance "Your are quite healthy otherwise this planet would have killed you a long time ago. We have come to recruit you."

Zixin stared at Yadrell in disbelief as he replied "You expect me to simply walk out and welcome you with open arms?"

Yadrell pointed his thumb at Jack and said "Honestly I except you to give us a lot of trouble like she did. Simple point is I don't give a frak about your secrets just as long as you're smart enough to be of use. These las guns are not going to make themselves."

Zixin didn't let his emotions betray him as he calmly said "You went through all of this work just to hire me for a job? What is in it for me then if I accept?"

Yadrell smiled as he said "For starters we don't have beta squad blast open the your ship's hanger doors and come in guns blazing tearing that ship of yours to bits." Feared now showed up on Zixin's face as he managed to find the soldiers on a camera "A war is coming with humanity's fate on the line. I am gathering the best of humanity for a team even if they are not the greatest people in the universe. Just name your price and I am sure we can work on it."

Zixin sighed as he knew he had lost and said "Safe passage off this planet and for all of my crimes to be purged."

Yadrell shook his head as he said "Can't promise safe passage since you will be joining us and the crimes… well your joining Cerberus. I highly doubt they will matter when you get to know us."

Zixin nodded as he said "I accept your terms… just don't destroy any of my projects."

Yadrell nodded as he said "I should also send you a few chapters and passages about AIs, but for now just get ready to see the ship. If you thought these flash lights were something than wait till you see the heavy weaponry."

* * *

The next two days went calmly enough. They had managed to gather all of the equipment and supplies as they headed back to the ship. Yadrell was uneasy with the fully functioning AI Zixin kept with him, but Zixin wouldn't leave without it. The rough intro about what Zixin was going to be doing didn't work out too well until he saw the inside of the ship. Then he went ecstatic as he was fully committed to at least stay on the ship and learn how the entire thing worked.

Ms. Winters had finally managed to recover as she had her hand replaced with a cybernetic one as she started to resume her duties. She wasn't happy with Yadrell using the imperial vehicles on the compound despite the fact they killed everyone and managed to recruit Siu Zixin to their side as Yadrell had to spend the better part of a day learning Cerberus protocol especially after learning he had given Jack complete access to Cerberus records.

Jack wasn't open with the crew, but after learning exactly what was on stake she wasn't as uncooperative as they would have expected her to be. That and curiosity had gotten a hold of her as she started to ask Yadrell a few questions about life in his universe and what other magic tricks he could accomplish.

Adam on the other hand focused on securing the refinery as they started to set defenses up and prepare a few squads to stay behind to keep the operation running. They had informed The Illusive Man about it as more people were going to be transferred over to keep the place running. Already the place was able to procure some of the necessary materials they would need if they wanted to replicate the Imperial technology.

Yadrell walked through the corridors with Zixin as he helping show the rest of the ship and the projects to Zixin to see which project he would try to work on first. This had as much affect as asking which Archeotech a tech priest wanted to examine first and just like a tech priest most of it involved him talking about it.

Zixin smiled as he said "Rejuvenation treatments. To think of what I could do in a body ten years younger. What about these cyborgs? Why have so many operating drones with brains in them if you are not using the original minds and knowledge?"

Yadrell sighed as he said "The Men of Iron incident is why they don't use AIs. I mean just look at your own universe with the geth or better yet the Reapers!"

The LOKI bot beside him said "Difference in society could produce different results. Machines only built for war can only cause war."

Zixin nodded in agreement as he added "I agree with part of what your Tech priest say. If you build a machine either make a tool or treat it as an actual person. Don't try sticking it somewhere in between otherwise you go talking to wrenches or have another geth uprising."

Yadrell closed his eyes as he said "And you're AI beside you?"

Zixin smiled as he said "My assistant. I built him and treated him with basic rights because I made him smart enough to understand them. Just look at the geth or your Iron Men. Make something smart enough and tell them they're just tools for your empire and of course they will revolt."

Yadrell couldn't help but smile in relief as they reached the last room and said "And this place is where you work place will be until then. You can continue your own work or help with some of the joint projects like I have shown you, but please make sure check what you let your assistant know before he reads it."

Zixin ignored him as he went to work as a couple of other LOKI bots went to the other work stations. Yadrell made note to have the area checked for any problems and to ensure that kill teams would be able to quickly move in incase something had happened. He didn't want another repeat of Project Overlord on the ship.

Yadrell moved back to the QEC room as he prepared for his chat with The Elusive Man. His head ached as he had taken a glimpse into the warp trying to see if anyone else had fallen into this new universe. He had seen some planet about to fall to the collectors only to fail after Shepard's team arrived late, but they were unable to save everyone. It wasn't much, but Yadrell had an idea.

They needed information, but their original goal was to help stop the collectors. He didn't care if they could save the planet or not, but being possibly able to disable the ship and get the information they needed from it would be a nice win on their side. It would also help show which of the two team should get the best pick of any new possible recruits. Sheperd was finishing up with her krogan recruit which ended badly. Their objective failed as they got some possibly unfinished experiment as a left overprize instead of the krogan scientist which they actually needed. Of course blowing up an entire prison complex didn't stand to well on his record either, but securing the refinery hopefully fixed that problem.

Yadrell waited at the room darkened as he saw The Illusive Man's project be shown. Thankfully he seemed to be in a good mood since what he was about to ask wouldn't be an easy task.

The Illusive man spoke first as he said "How is Siu Zixin settling in?"

Yadrell shrugged as he replied "Better than Jack did. The AIs running about shouldn't be a problem, but precautions have been made."

"Just what kind of precautions?" The Illusive Man asked out of idol curiosity as he didn't expect an answer.

"Kill zones set up and charges set if we need to blast some parts of the ship." Yadrell replied with ease "I do not want another incident like Project Overlord… how is David by the way?"

"He is doing fine." The Illusive Man responded "Any reason?"

Yadrell shrugged as he replied "Just if we are looking for any recruits in the future. Speaking of the future… Just what have you planned for Horizon with that rumor?"

The Illusive Man smiled as he didn't reveal anything as he said "Rumor? I thought you would be looking more into possible leads to stop the Collectors or any other possible people that might have fell through like those chaos worshipers found on the Purgatory."

Yadrell smiled as he said "Not when the System Alliance sends one of Sheperd's old teammates that will lead to a Collector ship arriving. They should arrive within seven days giving us just enough time to prepare for an ambush of our own."

The Illusive Man smiled back as he said "I was wondering when you would tell me about your ability to see the future." Yadrell stopped smiling "Don't be so surprised. It was listed in one of Adam's earlier reports. If I'm also correct the information can tend to be a bit erratic."

Yadrell slowly nodded as he replied "That is true as it is one of the reasons why I don't like telling people about it. Though I made sure to double check my information. One of shepherd's teammates are being sent to Horizon though which one I don't know. The planet doesn't have much of a defense and all it would require to check is just to have a ship or probe near that one mass relay to let us know if they are coming out or heading towards that planet."

The Illusive man thought about it for a few moment before he said "Not to be rude, but I have to ask if you are able to disable a collector ship since you are lacking the ship's main guns."

Yadrell shrugged as he truthfully said "The turrets are still active and strong enough to punch through the armor on the ships here and it isn't uncommon to board a ship by ramming it back home and our hull will be a lot sturdier than theirs so it shouldn't be too much of a problem."

The Illusive man nodded as he said "I'll let you know if anything happens. Here is the footage shepherd's team managed to recover from one of the fallen colonies."

The image went out as Yadrell took a look at the new files sent to him. Thousands or possibly millions of small bugs swarmed the colony as they disabled the population before the collectors simply walked in taking the survivors without any problems. It would be hard to counter the creatures without sealed suits, but the shields they employed might be of some use. It might as well be time to see what skills Zixin had. Still they had at least five days to come up with a plan before they prepared to deploy themselves on the planet and if worse came to worse they could simply destroy the ship's life support and vent their air supply so the xenos couldn't breathe before they boarded it.

* * *

_Location : Citadel _

Anderson looked at the report as he tried to make sense of it. The galaxy seemed to have changed overnight. It only seemed like last week that Shepard had become the first human Spector or that he had join the council. That humanity was trying to make its mark on the galaxy.

Now had been Shepherd supposedly brought back from the dead only to join Cerberus. Terra Firma was a dying political movement only to have suddenly flourished in the Terminus Systems right after Shepherd went missing or died. Then there were rumors of some advanced human weapon made from the remains of the geth wreckage responsible for the destruction of purgatory. It seemed that the entire galaxy was against the system alliance ever since it joined the council.

Anderson looked at the latest reports. Terra Firma was making new petitions and requests as they were expanding into a military organization instead of a small political group. Already there were as scenarios being made of what future projects of Terra Firma transforming into a merc organization like the blue suns or becoming another terrorist organization like Cerberus. A few admirals had even started planning defenses Terra Firma when they went rouge.

There were even a few requests from Terra Firma's newest commander Samual. Samual was the most xenophobic person he had ever encountered as his hatred towards aliens almost boarded on religious fanaticism. All of his requests where to have humanity cut its trade or connections with the rest of the alien races and they would give the System Alliance new advanced weapons.

He skipped past them as he tried to focus on the latest complaints sent towards humanity. Most of them were complaining that the System Alliance was working hand in hand with Cerberus due to the latest attacks Cerberus has been making. A few had claimed that Sheperd himself was recruiting dangerous war criminals like the krogan Warlord Okeer. A few salarian politicians just requested him to tell shepherd to stop messing around with matters involving the genophage. Anderson smiled to himself as he received an incoming call from Ashely Williams.

The holographic display of Ashely Williams came through as she said "So far Horizon seems to be okay so far. We are trying to update the defense systems, but the locals don't think anything is going to happen to them. Honestly it's a nice place for shore leave."

Anderson nodded as he said "Just remember that the last few colonies thought they were safe and now their missing. Just get ready for shepherd's arrival or in case this is actually a trap set by Cerberus."

Ashley Williams looked a little hesitant as she said "With all due respect I find it ridicules that Shepard would actually join Cerberus. Are you sure this isn't some sort of rumor they are spreading to improve their own image?"

Anderson shook his head as he replied "That doesn't matter right now commander. What does matter is the safety of the colony and to make sure it doesn't disappear like the others. If Shepherd does come than you can check with her yourself and let us know what's really going on."

At that comment Ashley smiled as she said "Still don't believe she turned traitor."

Anderson scratched his neck as he said "Traitor is a strong word. Technically you had turned traitor along with the rest of the crew of Normandy when you chased after Saren."

"And we saved the Citadel." Ashley added with good humor

Anderson took a deep breath as he said "Honestly I think she has a good reason for what she is doing. I just wished I knew what it was. It seems more likely that Cerberus is taking out the colonies in the Terminus System since Terra Firma a pro-human organization hasn't been touched and are flourishing a bit _too_ well."

Ashley couldn't help but shiver as she said "Their latest spokesman is really something. The only person I have ever seen who still uses a sword in this day and age. The way he wore it defiantly showed that he knew how to use it."

Anderson nodded as he said "Your opinion?"

Ashley took a deep breath and then said "Think of someone like Shepherd. Good person with a good heart who managed to survive against all odds. Now replace that kind nature with bitterness, a Spartan training along with enough fanatic hatred to make the rest of Terra Firma to look like whiny kids in a playground."

Anderson closed his eyes as he said "So he properly is going to become a problem in the future?"

Ashley shook her head as she replied "I'd think he is going to become a problem in the present."

Anderson sighed as he said "Keep me informed of the situation if you can Williams."

Ashley's image disappeared as Anderson tried to figure out what to do next. The galaxy was becoming a hostile place as everyone was playing some secret agenda. It was days like these he hate his job.

A new call appeared as Anderson answered without looking thinking Ashley had forgotten to say something only to see Samual. War torn solider was the only way to describe him as Samual seemed to glare at Anderson despite the fact he was calling him for something.

Samual spoke with reluctance as he said "The batarian terrorist Cetok has caused a large problem for us all."

Anderson wasn't pleased with seeing Samual as he said "I don't care what mess your group has made."

Samual shook his head as he said "It's bigger than that. Remember those requests I sent to you before… I am going to give you everything including the advanced weapons. Earth _needs_ them now even if it has a bit of xenos taint that needs to be dealt with."

Anderson nodded as he knew something had went wrong. Samual spoke the word Xenos like someone else would say _Child Strangler _as he seemed to regret being forced to give them anything since he knew of the System Alliance's policy with trade including trading weapons and technology _to_ other races. The part that really bothered Anderson was the type of dread he seemed to be sensing from Samual. It was the same type of dread he had seen when the Counsel had just found out that shepherd really did have proof that Seran had gone rouge.

Samual tapped a few buttons on his side as he said "To show that I am telling the truth here are a few scans of an advanced energy weapons. Don't bother asking how it's possible. I have real live footage of it working in action. The point is that while the nozzle may be a little bit damage the weapon works and I am willing to give it to you if we can set up a face to face meeting in the next few days."

Anderson took a quick look at the files as he expected a virus or something only to see footage of Samual firing a laser beam through a batarian soldier's head. Since nothing bad had happened after a minute since the file had been set Anderson saved and locked away the files as he was ready to let the egg heads make heads or tails of it.

Samual continued once he saw that he had Anderson's attention again "Despite the differences of our points of view the one thing I do know about you is that you care about the safety of humanity. The scans of the weapon are just to help you keep an open mind, because I wouldn't have believe what I just saw a few hours ago. This is a threat big enough to threaten Holy Terra itself."

Samual closed the communication as Anderson couldn't help but feel worried. Shepherd had kept warning about the threat of the reapers as everyone had ignored her. With the limited budget he had been able to use for the System Alliance a few more ships had been built to replace their losses they had sustained in defeat Sovereign, but not enough in his own opinion. He just hopped that Samual hadn't run across another ship like Sovereign.


	11. Chapter 11

Warp Effect Chapter 11

_Author note – I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop._

_Sorry for the late update. Work has gotten in the way and I was going to start looking over the past chapters to fix some spelling and/or grammar mistakes. So leave any notes or comments on writing or comments about where the story is or should be headed._

* * *

The days went by as everyone prepared for the mission. Sui Zixin went to work on attempt to adapt their technology to the las weapon energy packs as they could use the energy better. The results of the project where getting mobile adaptors to plug the las weapons into to recharge them and to generate powerful enough Kenetic Barriers to help use to stop the paralyzer swarm the Collectors used and hopefully stop most attacks due to the more powerful power source. If it worked out then the not only would the enemy not be able to harm them while they would be able to hose down the enemy so long as the colony had power, but to be safe they gave all of the fire teams the standard imperial flak armor with spare energy packs for the las guns or the kinetic shield generator if needed.

Adam switched the training to employ holographic drones as the fire teams started training in use of las weapons and melee weapons incase the enemy managed to engage in close combat. He didn't know what the collectors would throw at them and the only race of alien bugs he knew of were the Rachni and the Tyranids and they both liked close combat. The few times he wasn't training the soldiers he had spent checking the inventory to see what imperial technology could be employed and which ones would actually be practical. While the Chimera class vehicles or the modified Drake variants salvaged from the damaged ones would be of use… it wouldn't be exactly a good idea to let the rest of the galaxy know since they were there to _save_ the colony as they would surely tell everyone what would happen. Saying they had experimental laser weapons was one thing. Letting the galaxy know they had vehicles that employed even more powerful ones that could tear through buildings with ease would be another. Even then all they had to do was just stall for time.

Winters started to work on the defenses as she prepared the Cerberus equipment along with the turrets using ammo based off of the imperial bolter technology. While the bullets were not bolter rounds they would do more damage than the standard ones and hopefully would be another step closer to fully replicating the techonolgy even with the lack of adamantium. The last of the equipment was being prepared for if they were able to disable the Collector ship and board it.

Yadrell spent the time looking over his spell book and taking a few glances into the future to see if he could get a better idea on what they would be facing. The time he spent outside of his room or where he went to study his spells was used to getting to know the crew better or sparing with Jack. The sparing matched would leave one of them injured by the end of it, but nothing a trip to the medical ward couldn't fix.

They seemed to have been prepared for everything as the day came that the collectors would attack Horizon as they prepared to leave only for The Illusive Man to contact them before they set off.

* * *

Yadrell sat in the room with the QEC along with Adam and Winters as they waited to see what The Illusive Man wanted. Yadrell drummed his fingers against the table waiting as he expected the entire mission to be called off because shepherd needed the spot light or some other ridicules reason.

The Illusive Man appeared as he said "Good to see all of you are here. What is your current status by the way?"

Winters spoke first as she said "We stayed away from Horizon, but we should be able to arrive as soon as something happens."

The Illusive Man sighed as he said "Something unexpected has happened. Sheperd had received a call from an old squad mate asking for help. A Quarian named Tali needed help with a mission involving the geth. She along with another alien as joined Sheperd's crew."

An image had appeared of Shepherd accepting Tali back into the crew of Normidy as an alien in a yellow suit stood by Tali. The other alien was accepted into the team as Yadrell's eyes widened in surprise as he reconized the fire warrior suit.

Yadrell slowly said under his breath "A Tau? Here!"

The Illusive Man turned his attention to Yadrell and said "So this is a different race instead of a heavily armored Quarian. What do you know of them?"

Yadrell grunted as he said "The Blue bastards are a pain in the butt. They all preach about the "Greater Good" which essentially them telling you to join their empire or die. They do have descent weapons through I doubt this one has brought in an armory like we did if he is stuck using the technology of this universe."

Winters looked at the Tau and said "He could have tried to reverse engineer some of the technology like we have been attempting to do."

Yadrell shook his head "Possibly, but unlikely. They would rather blow up their own technology than let other races get their hands on it. The races that are a part of their empire are either used as slaves or brain washed to join their little empire after shooting anyone who disagrees. You can call my view point as personal bias, but the fact is if he still had his riffle he would have it in his hands instead of a standard one. Besides Fire warriors are the soldiers while their Earth cast is the ones that build, modify, and repair their technology for the most part. Even if the fire warrior did know how to repair his weapon it would be from the supplies found on a Tau planet which are not in this universe."

The Illusive Man nodded as he said "Well despite your feelings about this race. This Tau had managed to find out about a rumor that Shepherd was going to be on Horizon so Shepherd decided to investigate it. Right now she is meeting up with Ashly Williams as we had just been able to confirm that the Collectors had just emerged from the Omega Four Relay."

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose as he muttered "Just great… So are you calling us to pull Shepherd out before shit hits the fan or are we to wait after it hits so we can get a surprise attack on the Collector ship."

"_Or are you ordering us not to interfere because Shepherd is there?"_ Yadrell asked in the back of his mind before he said "Unless we act soon Shepherd's team may suspect that Cerberus had something to do with the rumor to have Ashley William out as bait for the Collectors."

The Illusive Man shook his head as he said "Your mission has been changed. You are to make contact with Shepherd's team and prepare for the attack. Keep the ship out of range until the Collectors attack the colony. We can't let an opportunity like this just slip our grasp."

The image of the Illusive Man disappeared as they looked at each other. Their mission just got a bit more complicated. Adam and Winters looked at the image of the Tau Fire Warrior as they begin to wonder if the Quarians had begun to reverse engineer some of the advanced technology the other universe had. Yadrell simply stared at the picture wondering if the Tau knew who he was and more importantly how he could kill the Tau and blame it on the Collectors. The last thing he needed was one of those blue freaks to start preaching about their greater good or to cause a problem for his plans.

Adam spoke first as he said "Well if we are going to have the ship in combat we might as well give it a name so that the Normandy knows not to shot it."

Winters shook her head as she said "The Name had already been picked by some of the scientist as _The Imperial Star_ for its bright future and how far away we are from it in a technological stand point. Honestly I just think they watched too many late night Vids."

Yadrell shook his head as he said "The better question is what we are going to say _to_ them."

* * *

Joker took another look at the planet's readings as he waited. It was just another earthquake on the planet as the planet seemed to be getting a couple of them. Still it was his job to sit tight and wait to see what happened while Shepard got to talk with Ashley again.

EDI spoke "Unknown ship has just appeared."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Joker said to himself as the ship's sensors just detected it. "Shepherd can you hear me!"

EDI interrupted him and said "The ship is sending Cerberus identification code though the ship itself is not on any of Cerberus's records."

"What?" Joker asked half surprised and half confused. "You sure this isn't some kind of trick?"

EDI responded "Verification confirmed. It is a Cerberus vessel and they are asking if they can prepare for the defense of the colony along with us."

Joker looked at the size of the ship. It was massive as every inch of it seemed to reek of warfare. If anything it looked like they were the ones threatening the colony instead of protecting it.

Jack opened on the com channel and said "Shepherd… A Cerberus ship is asking if we need assistance and their bigger than us."

* * *

Yadrell got into the shuttle as he prepared to disembark. Everyone had gathered their equipment as they knew they would have to set up defenses quickly. Yadrell drummed his fingers along the side of the long las as he tried to figure out what he would do. The chaos heretics had been a problem, but then again they were not the most organized group. The imperial guard he might have been able to convince he was part of an inquisitor's team as the inquisitor had given him enough information he would have needed to pretend to be one before she died. The problem was that the Tau might have seen him and they certainly would not have been as easy to convince. Shooting one of Shepherd's teammates would not be the best way to start negations.

Adam muttered to himself as he had a grave expression on his face. It wasn't that he was afraid of dying. He was just trying to keep a rage he felt bottled down inside before it burst out. Adam's only experience with the Tau was that they had killed someone dear to him as he would now have to stand side by side with one of them instead of shooting them like he wanted. Any group that would align themselves with Batarians meant trouble.

Jack spoke as she said "So what's making you look so pissed off?"

Adam spoke with rage as he said "We are supposed to be protecting humanity and now we are stuck having to fight with one of the races that tried to kill us all! I mean they're properly just as bad as the Batarian pirates that attacked us."

Winter sighed as she slowly said "She was talking to Yadrell. The better question is if _you_ will have a problem with this."

Adam closed his eyes as he said "We are here to stop the collectors and save the colony. I am sure the colony is big enough for me to avoid being near the Tau soldier. What about you Yadrell?"

Yadrell shrugged as he replied "The Tau don't have psykers. The imperium found psykers useful, but there was a reason for them to be nerves. I just worry that the Tau might react badly if he knows I am a psyker which would make negotiations with Shepherd much harder. While I will admit I have a personal bias about them. The only question is will his _bias_ get the better of him."

Zixin sighed as he said "I just can't believe I am stuck having to work with _him_ for once. Zeaad would have done the galaxy a favor if he just kicked the bucket like everyone else wanted him to."

Winter closed her eyes as she said to herself "Two different teams finally coming together and before we even see them we already have conflicting problems."

Jack couldn't help but smile as she said "And here I thought I would be the one who would cause the biggest problem. It's actually kind of refreshing. "

The doors started to open up as a turian could be heard shouting "They employ a psychopath on their team. She has a criminal record worse than all of the mercs I had hunted on Omega."

Jack's smile disappeared as Winter smiled saying "Apparently you have someone who doesn't like you on the other team also."

"Stuff it _lefty_" Jack replied bitterly.

Winters replied by extending her new mechanical middle digit at Jack. Jack laughed in response.

"It's going to be one of _those_ days." Yadrell said to himself as his head started to ache.

* * *

Shepherd looked at the new Cerberus team that had arrived as she had begun to feel a bit of doubt about joining Cerberus. Her team had been set up to take out the Collectors only to have Cerberus spread rumors that she had been with them during the team she was dead. Then out of nowhere Cerberus suddenly had a different team she didn't know about had come to the planet talking about needing to defend the colony when she had just arrived. The shuttle was a Cerberus shuttle, but the weapons and armor were completely different and by the looks of it much more advanced than she had been given for her suicide mission which wasn't a good sign.

The team line up was very different from Shepherd's as she could almost feel the violence that seemed to emanate from them. While the Normady was a Cerberus vessel the people on the ship were good people for the most part. The soldiers leaving the ship setting up defenses for the colony felt more like the Cerberus soldiers that had tried to kill her when she was still working with the System Alliance and to make things worse they were better armed. The leaders of the different team came forth starting at them as a similar squad like Shepherd's had been formed except they only had humans and two of them were extremely dangerous criminals.

Zaeed took a step forward as he pointed at the soldier with the eclipse paint job and shouted "What the hell are you doing here bastard! Didn't your own group want you dead?"

Zixin pulled out a pistol aiming it at Zaeed as he replied "Better than being shot by your second in command. Tell me was it the Batarians that got you mad or the fact he was doing a better job than you?"

Zaeed pulled out his shotgun as tempers started to flare as he shouted back "That bastard got what was coming to him and I'll make sure you can meet him _real_ soon!"

Shepherd shouted "Tell your man to stand down! Put you weapon away Zaeed!"

Zixin grunted as he put away the gun and said "All I needed was one shot."

"You couldn't hit the side of a barn." Zaeed replied as he regretfully put his shotgun back.

Shepherd sighed in relief and said "Now which one of you are in charge and why the hell are you here?"

One of them stepped forward and said "I guess that would be me. You can call me Yadrell and we are here because we were trying to figure out why the Shadow Broker was spreading the rumor that you would be here."

"The Shadow Broker?" Shepherd asked as she didn't believe a word. "Why would he spread a rumor like that?"

Yadrell shook his head in disappointment as he pointed to Ashley and said "To lure one of your allies out far enough from Citadel Space so that his employers the Collectors could capture her with ease. Right after you ship arrived on this planet a Collector ship immediately left the Omega Four Relay and started to moving towards this planet."

Shepherd nodded as she said "And this wasn't some ploy to have the colony set up as bait?"

Yadrell looked over to the Tau Fire Warrior that was coming and said in anger "Tau! If you got this idea by listening form that xenos filth than there are a few things I need to warn you about that particular race."

The Tau raised his weapon and said "So an Imperial has made it to this universe after all. Say what you must, but I have only told her the truth."

Yadrell smiled as he said "Including just _how_ you got here? If I remember correctly you shot an imperial officer in the back as you made a deal with a fracking _daemon_ of all things."

The Tau shouted back "And just who are you!"

Yadrell raised his own long las and said "Someone who worked close to an Inquisitor. So how did it feel selling out your own planet?" The Tau fired a few bullets only for Jack to erect a biotic barrier as the bullets hit it instead. "Shepherd! Tell the Xenos that if he tries that again I _will _put a round through his traitorous head! I don't care what aliens you keep at your side, but I would suggest you keep an _eye_ on that one!"

"Stand down!" Shepherd shouted as she pushed the Tau's riffle down. "Either keep you head in check or go back to the Normandy!"

The Tau didn't bother raising the weapon up again. Shepherd felt unease about Yadrell as she knew he had egged him on and it had worked. Now he was shown having more discipline than they did and to make matters worse they had just received confirmation that a Collector ship had suddenly started heading towards their location just after she had set foot on the planet.

Shepherd turned around to face Yadrell as she said "So I take it you're from the other universe."

Yadrell simply shrugged as he replied "And here I thought that would be the hardest part to convince you off, but back to the matter at hand. You can get your people back in your ship and leave if you want. Unless you have any countermeasures against the collectors you won't be much of use here."

Shepherd smiled as she said "I think you will find we are prepared."

* * *

The two groups had split away as Shepherd's team was sent back to help prepare the civilians and get Mordin's countermeasures against the paralyzer swarm ready. Yadrell sighed in relief that he managed to have everything work out so smoothly despite the last minute change. In all honesty he didn't even know if he was right, but it was safe to guess it after taking a brief look into the past. After that display it would hopefully create enough doubt for now until he managed to create a more permanent solution.

Adam turned on his vox system and said "Why did you just provoke him like that?"

Yadrell sighed as he said "To see if I was right. My glimpses into the future didn't show me this Tau and Tali was supposed to join Shepard's team _after_ Horizon. Either way it just goes to show that we can't completely rely on my future sight."

Adam shook his head as he said "You know what I meant. Why did you provoke him into attacking us?"

Yadrell thumbed towards Zixin and said "He had Zeaad hate each other, but they are civil enough to not shoot each other when they have a job to do that doesn't involve it. The last encounter we had with a Tau didn't end to well for us and I wanted to at least discredit him a little and see how much Shepherd trusts the fracking xenos. I can only imagine the questions that are being raised now. Besides the last thing we need is for that xenos to let Shepherd know we killed a few of his comrades back when we first met."

Adam couldn't help but nod as he said "I can see your point, but weren't you still taking a chance in case he shot you with one of your universe's weapons?"

Yadrell rubbed his neck as he said "I would then just hope that either you or Jack would be able to pull me away before it hit. Still this is just a temporary measure. We need a more permeant solution to the Tau problem."

Yadrell stopped as he saw one of Shepherd's crew members in front of them. He had fought a couple of Krogan by now most of them blood pack members, but this Krogan seemed different. For one thing he seemed to try to be stay calm and organized like some well-disciplined soldier. The Krogan seemed to be getting into an argument with Jack.

Jack shouted back "Do you want to give it a go then?"

"Gladly." Grunt replied as he prepared to fight.

Jack put down her guns as Grunt waited for the first move. Then suddenly they both charged at each other ready to fight only for Jack to duck under Grunt's fist and managed punch him in the chest and unleashing a biotic blast sending him into one of the buildings with a gratifying thud. Before Grunt could even recover she kept on the assault as she closed in and gave him another pounding sending him face first in the dirt leaving a deep skid mark on the ground.

Grunt didn't move for a few seconds as Jack simply walked away triumph and said "So much for the "perfect" krogan."

Yadrell couldn't help but smile as he said "Now I don't feel too bad about the team line ups."

The vox system kicked in as one of the fire teams said "Kill boxes three through seven have been set up. Two of them are still having to deal with the locals and Michal is still trying to setup the dead man switches on the turrets in cause the paralyzer swarms knock us out."

Yadrell went back to the vox system as he said with joy "Good. Just use the las batteries to recharge the main kenotic barrier and use the flame throwers if the swarm persists. Remember people we just have to buy time before the real fireworks begin so if you need to fall back then do so! Now let's show this world how to truly fight a war."

* * *

Ashely spoke "Besides the GARDIAN towers there are several safe houses in the center of the city. If we send the civilians there and bunker down around the houses we may be able to fight them off, though Garrus would need to help take a look at the GARDIAN towers since the still have a targeting problem. "

Shepherd looked over towards Mordin and said "What is the status of the countermeasures against the collector swarm?"

"Believe that I am finished, Shepherd. Would like still run a couple of tests to confirm theory, but life never gives time needed." Mordin stated "Will start producing as much as I can for defenders and hope all goes well."

Shepherd smiled as she said "We made due with less against Saren and the Geth. Anyone have any ideas about defenses we can use for the colony?"

The Tau nodded as he said "With Tali's help we have managed to help produce more of their markerlight technology for the holograph drones and able to help link more of the weapons to it to help improve accuracy, but not as well as I would like."

"Thanks Tai. Start handing out the guns to the colonist's soldiers." Shepherd added with relief "Do we still have any mines left over from out last mission?"

Zaeed nodded as he replied "Already got some of the boys setting up ambush points. Though the other Cerberus boys are digging in deep and entrenching themselves. If they do manage to survive the paralyzer swarm then those heavy guns of theirs will do a lot of damage by the looks of them."

Tai shook his head as he said "I would not trust them for help in this battle."

Shepherd sighed as she replied "Every soldier helps Tai. All we have to do is beat them back until the Guardian Towers are finished then we can open fire on their ship and send them back with a bloody nose. We are not going to lose this colony to the Collectors."

Everyone left the room expect Ashley as she stayed. Shepherd knew what to expect as it was the one question that wanted to know and quite frankly deserved an answer to. The only question was if she would listen.

Ashley spoke softly as she said "Why are you working with Cerberus? Hell why is Garrus working with a punch of racist pricks who hate aliens or for that matter why are the rest of them working for Cerberus?"

Shepherd closed her eyes and said "It's because Cerberus is footing the bill. The collectors need to be stopped and so far they are the only ones who are doing anything about it."

Ashley shouted "What about the System Alliance! Are you just turning your back on them because Cerberus managed to bring you back!"

Shepherd shouted back in rage "I am not turning my back on the System Alliance! Tell me what has the System Alliance done since the Collectors blew up the first Normady?"

Ashley pulled back as she replied "It's complicated. They had their reasons and now with humanity on the council."

"Exactly. The System Alliance already has it's hand full." Shepherd stated with a hint of disappointment "The galaxy kept turning as they weren't even able to get my body back to even give me a proper funeral. The rest of the council refuse to believe that the Reapers even exist as they just mark off the colonies lost to the Collectors as "pirate attacks" instead of seeing that something is going on."

"And so just for that you're willing to shake hands with the devil himself?" Ashely shouted back "Do you remember all the outposts we took out while back on the Normandy? All of those sick experiments they had committed? Hell! Have you taken a look at your so called allies that just landed here a few minutes ago? The people on your new ship may have had most of them come from the old Normandy, but when I take a look at the ones not from your ship I see the same Cerberus soldiers that needed to be killed back then."

Shepherd rose from her seat shouting "They are the only ones who are trying to stop the collectors. Once I am done with the fight against the Collectors I plan on going back to the System Alliance to face whatever punishment they think is fit." Shepherd spoke with a hint of sorrow in her voice "But for now the collectors are still a threat that needs to be stopped and no one else is doing anything about it."

"You sound just like Saren when he tried to convince us that the Reapers were a good thing!" Ashely replied "They feed him a bunch of bullshit as they tricked him into doing their dirty work. Right now Cerberus is saying they want to stop the collectors, but what is their real end game plan Shepherd?" Ashely slammed her fist on the table "What happens when you find their base because I am willing to bet my entire career that they won't tell you to blow it up, but somehow "preserve" it so that _they_ can study it since the Collectors are one of the most advanced races out there!"

Shepherd gritted her teeth as she said "What about the System Alliance making deals with Terra Firma? They hate aliens just as much as Cerberus and they are turning more savage with each day. Have you heard their latest spokesman taking about humanity's _Imperial Destiny_ and his view point of aliens?"

"That's different…" Ashley slowly replied "We need the resources."

"So it's alright to blame me for making deals with a different group, but it's different if _you're _the one making them?" Shepherd replied "Half of the extranet has videos of you meeting this Samual character and attempting to make negations with Terra Firma! Let me tell you that Samual's _vision_ for the future is much more than what Cerberus could envision. Cerberus may want humanity to stand on top, but Samuals want's humanity to be the _only_ race _left_ in the galaxy."

Ashley couldn't help but shiver as she said "He's one of those Imperials your new alien spoke of."

Shepherd nodded as she replied "One of the worst by the sound of it. A former Commissar which essentially meant he shot people that didn't agree with him or tried to retreat during a battle, before he was promoted to working with the Inquisition. Tai described it as the Spanish inquisition, but with flame throwers and a nastier temper. They are not what the System Alliance stands for as they even have prayers for killing anything not human according to their standards. It might even be safe to say they would kill Joker just because of his condition."

Ashley shook her head as she said "Is it safe to trust his word especially after what he just did a few minutes ago? Besides we all know that the truth tends to be one of the first things that get altered during a war. The enemies are savages while we are the good guys. Heck the resentment from our "first" contact with the Turians still carries on to this day."

Shepherd deflected the question and said "Did what I just tell you sound _exactly_ like what this Samual character would do or fit his plans for humanity's future?"

Ashely closed her eyes as she tried to calm down as she said "Which was one of the reasons why I was against the negations in the first place. Even more so after I meet the guy and had even told Anderson that it might be a good idea to try to take him out now before he becomes a problem in the future."

Shepherd smiled as she knew her old friend hadn't changed and said "Well that is one thing we can agree on. Let's get back to saving this colony."

Ashely nodded as she shook Shepherd's hand and said "Nice to see you're still the same commander I had severed under. While I don't like your decision with working with Cerberus… I can understand them now, but just promise me you won't do anything stupid."

Shepherd shook her head and said "Like the time we defied orders and chased after Saren?"

Ashely chuckled as she said "That was foolhardy and we all know how that turned out. Just remember that you still have a few friends outside that you can talk to if things get rough. After all we would have never made it if Anderson didn't help us after all."

EDI appeared and said "Sorry to interrupt, but Grunt has just gotten into a fight with the other Cerberus team."

Shepherd grunted in annoyance as she said "What happened _this_ time?"

EDI's image shimmered for a moment before she said "Apparently he was the one knocked out as his opponent walked away unscathed. The opponent's name was Jack."

"Alright now I'm worried." Ashley replied. "Krogan don't go down easily fighting and close combat is _their_ specialty."

Shepherd took a look at the power cables running to the new Cerberus weapons in the background and said "I think they have a few more surprises that they haven't showed us yet."

* * *

The entire colony was restless as they were herded into the bunkers like cattle as no one spoke. They had lived in peace for so long that the sudden spark of war had caught them unaware. In just a few minutes their peaceful colony was now surrounded with guns as soldiers took positions along the buildings and started to entrench themselves as explosives lined the streets. Yesterday they were happy to have the System Alliance as guests and have them fix the defenses of the colony. While a pirate attack was unlikely they would have a better chance of attracting more colonists with the improved defenses as the ones working on the defenses took their sweat time as they enjoyed the new paychecks coming from the System Alliance.

Now the rumors had suddenly turned real as the enemy _was_ right at their front door ready to take every last soul on the planet and do something horrible to them back on their ship. Everyone who had a gun and knew how to use it was suddenly given a spare suit of armor as they had been conscripted into service somehow. No one refused as they knew that if they failed then everyone on the planet would die. Being conscripted just meant you got a suit of armor instead of the clothes of your pack to protect you when the enemy came.

Children asked their parents questions wondering how long they would be hiding as loved ones made promises to meet up again even though they knew the promises were hollow. The soldiers and technicians who were garrisoned on the planet before the System Alliance came now started giving apologies as they knew that if they had listened to Ashley in the first place they would have stood a better chance. Now it was possible they all would die.

Yet despite the darkness that now held the colony in terror there was a shining star of hope that kept the fear at bay. Commander Shepherd the first human Spector and Hero of the Citadel was there to defend them as she would give her life if needed to save them! A few of the colonist leaders brought some of the old vids as they showed Shepherd defeating countless foes to help bring hope to the colonist as they stayed safe in the bunkers.

Yadrell looked at the colony as he felt some sort of twisting pain in his stomach. It took him a few moments to figure it out as he saw the Cerberus soldiers wearing the imperial guard flak armor before he understood. Now the planet looked normal to him. The freedoms they had enjoyed were replaced with strict obedience otherwise they would be dead. Savage xenos that wished to halt Humanity's grand destiny came tearing away at the borders of the space humanity held. This was the battlefield that he had lived on for most of his life. The only difference this time was that now was that he would be defending it instead of invading it.

Yadrell set himself up on top of one of the buildings as he drummed his fingers against the side of the long las as he waited for the enemy to appear. Thoughts began to drift in his mind as he didn't like how familiar this battlefield was to him. Already part of his mind began recalling certain spells and summing rituals as it began to calculate the exact amount of needed sacrifices would be required for maxim result and which daemons would be better suited for the situation. Already the ritual knife's hilt was in the palm of his hand as he knew how long it would take to make the ritual and how to dispose of the body afterwards if needed.

"Are you alright?" a voice spoke behind him as Yadrell quickly turned around pulling the long las with him only to see Jack. She backed away a little and said "Fuck! Didn't mean to scare you."

Yadrell tried to smile as he said "Sorry. Just a few bad memories. So what did you want Jack?"

She grinned like a gambler about to win the pot and said "Last time you got more points than I did, but I beat you more times during sparing. Bet you that I'll kill more bugs than you can."

Yadrell chuckled as he said "I can shoot lighting with my mind and you think you can kill more foes than me?"

Jack nodded as she pointed as the car behind her without looked and said "And I can throw cars with _my_ mind. Of course I'm going to win."

Yadrell shook his head as he couldn't help but grin as he said "I'll take you on that bet. What does the winner get if _he_ wins?"

Jack simply shrugged as she lifted up her shotgun and said "_I_ want to learn how to shoot lightning bolts from _my_ fingertips. Who knows maybe a biotic can do it too or at least how to do that fire ball trick!"

Yadrell nodded as he said "And if I win I want you to stop holding back."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Jack replied "People keep telling me I need restraint and you tell me to stop holding back!"

Yadrell shrugged as he said "You know what I mean."

Joker responded over the Vox System "Just letting you all know that the collector ship just made it to the planet. Good luck."

In the distance a cloud had started to form as it came rushing towards the colony. Yadrell looked through the scope as he saw the paralyzer swarm moving quickly towards them. He activated the kinetic barrier Zixin had been working on has he began to have second doubts about the Saliarn's untested countermeasure being used on him. The only reason he even took it was to help show that he was willing to work with Shepherd.

The swarm hit made it into the colony as they simply flew past them without any problem. He could hear some of the soldiers cursing over the vox system about the bugs crashing into the kinetic barrier that didn't take the alien's counter measure simply because there wasn't enough to go around. They were switching to the flamethrowers in an attempt to reduce the swarm and hopefully be able to see what was going on around them. Thankfully their shields were keeping them safe, but the enemy knew where they were now.

Above them they could see the collector ship over the colony as hundreds of objects started to fall from the sky surrounding the colony.

Yadrell looked through the scope and said "The bugs are the collectors, but what are the zombies?"

Adam spoke on the vox system and said "Looks like The Illusive Man was correct. The Husks are Reaper technology."

Winters shouted "The collectors are sending the Husks first towards the areas that didn't get the countermeasure! Redeploy the current troops to protect those areas. The paralyzer swarm hasn't left their area!"

"Frak!" Yadrell cursed as he prepared to move.

* * *

Zaeed shouted in surprise "Holy Frack they have lasers guns!"

A stream of red las bolts tore through the advancing husks as the fire team on the building continued use the flamethrowers to torch the paralyzer swarms that covered their kinetic barrier. The collector focused their attention as they fired their beam weapons as it hit the kinetic barrier causing it to start to falter.

Zaeed fired a few rounds at the collectors and shouted "Shoot those winged bastards down! We're the only ones allowed to have laser weapons!"

They fired at the collectors catching them in the cross fire. A few of them tried to active kinetic barriers but they were no match for the colonist's combined fire as they were struck down. The Husks moved closer towards their position only for another hail of las fire to tear them apart. Zaeed looked up as the paralyzer swarm had been partly dealt with as they could now see inside the kinetic barrier.

One of the Cerberus soldiers gave Zaeed a thumbs up and shouted "I owe you a drink mate!"

Zaeed laughed as he said "Would rather have one of those fancy guns!"

The Cerberus soldier laughed as he gunned down a few more husks shouting "Only got flamers and the las Turret's in use. Want a flamer?"

Zaeed ducked behind a wall as the collector weapons stuck his position and shouted "You heard the man! Drinks on him if we make it through this so keep those bugs off his back!"

* * *

Adam fired a few more rounds with the las gun and shouted "Fucking things are as bad as the Nids!"

One of the collectors rose up in the air as it expanded as some strange light seemed to envelope it before it said "_**Your advanced weapons cannot har**_…"

The glowing collector fell to ash as a few dozen las bolts had stuck it's body. The collectors seemed to loss cohesion for a small moment before another collector started to glow. The collectors around the glowing one threw themselves at the defenders without any regard for their lives as Adam started to figure out why.

"Fucking things are just like the fucking Nids." Adam said to himself before he switched to the vox system "Shoot the glowing one! That's the one actually controlling the others!"

"What do you mean?" Winters asked in confusion over the vox channel "Their advancing all over the place."

Adam shook his head as he scanned the area for the glowing one and said "The Nids have a hive mind system. They get leaders in the swarm to guide the moving mass of death to where the hive mind wants it. This is just a similar system."

Zixin tossed a grenade and shouted "It is possible. The rest of the collectors could just be spare bodies with limited intelligence while the real collector could just upload himself to a new body when we break one of his old ones just like my AI units with the LOKI bots, but the question is where is the central body or intelligence being stored?"

Adam looked up at the collector ship in the sky and said "My money's on the ship above us. Why fight the battle yourself when you can just swarm the place with spare bodies?"

Winters bit her lip as she said "Sovereign did the same things to Saren. If anything this confirms that the collectors are connected with the reapers. They properly have a stronger connection with the reapers than the Geth had with Sovereign."

Adam switched on his com system and shouted on all frequency "To all defenders of Horizon. Shooting the glowing freak among the collectors. That's the one control them all and the fraker can body hop to other collectors. So keep an eye out for it!"

* * *

Grunt smashed through a group of husks as he gapped one of the collectors and used him as a shield against the collector weapons buying him enough time to take cover behind a wall. He couldn't help but laugh as joy seemed to fill his every being. His heart was pounding as bullets and lasers were flying all around him yet this was one of the happiest moments he had all for all of his brief short life.

On the ground was one of the Cerberus soldiers from the other ship as he was bleeding badly on the ground. One of the collector beam weapons had torn up his right arm badly where the flack armor didn't protect him. Grunt took hold of himself as he held back the battle lust, but it was getting harder each time now. First he had to heal the soldier. Then he could go back to the battle. That's what a perfect solider would do.

Grunt started to apply the medi gel as the man spoke "Ha. A fraking Krogan is the one who treats me on a battlefield. The universe has really become messed up since Binthu." Grunt finished the treatment ensuring the man would live even if he would properly loss his arm. He started to go back only for the man to grab his leg "You can't leave just yet."

Grunt shook of the off arm and said "I have enemies to kill."

The man smiled as he used his good arm to hold up a bone like sword and said "Then do me a favor and bag a few bugs with this. It's a lot more effective than you would think."

Grunt took the weapon as he felt the weight of the blade. It was strange to find a melee weapons being used by Cerberus when the entire galaxy had stopped using them including the Krogan. He gave it a few swings before a collector landed in front of them. Grunt swung the blade at the collector only to cleave it with ease as the blade continued into the building slicing a good chunk of it off it with ease.

The man chuckled as he said "So how do you like it?"

Grunt looked at the group of husks charging their position and lifted the man with his other arm shouting "Out of my way!"

The man shouted in surprise as he said "Don't be a fool. Just leave me here and I'll try to buy you some time!"

Grunt laughed as he cleaved through the husks effortlessly and screaming "I am the perfect Krogan! This is nothing!"

Grunt continued to laugh as he rushed back towards Shepherd's last position with his new weapon. This _was_ the best day so far in his short life as he continued to cleave through anyone enemy foolish enough to approach him. _This_ is what it meant to be a Krogan!

* * *

Yadrell shouted on the vox system "What is the status of the GARDIAN turret and why in the warp haven't you blasted the dam thing yet!"

Ashely shouted back "We all already have most it ready, but the collectors are focusing their efforts here."

One of the Cerberus soldiers shouted "Fire team 3 down. Bugs took out the shield as the swarm got to them!"

Another shouted "Fire team 12 down to turrets. Need assistance here!"

Yadrell grunted as he ran towards the turret. The Collectors were planning to overwhelm them with numbers. If they sent the imperial ship to take it out the collector ship now the ship would either crash onto the planet or start to send even more soldiers to the ground ensuring the colony would fall. They needed the ship to retreat as more reports of the fire teams were starting to fall.

Jack shouted "Holy shit! What the fuck is that thing?"

A large husk the size of a one of the makos hovered towards the defenders. It was firing beams at the defenders similar to the collector weapons, but stronger as it killed a few of the defenders before it continued moving forward. Beside it were a couple of mutated husks with some sort of bio weapon growing out of it's limp. Unlike the Tyranid bio guns which connection and moved like a natural limb the husk guns resembled more like an infection made by Nurgle without the ability to spread the plague even further.

Yadrell shook his head as he replied "More reaper tech."

He took a deep breath as he took aim at what seemed to be it's face and fired the long las. The abomination quickly turned as t's claws lifted one of the bloated husks and used it as a shield taking the blunt of the blow. The other husks opened fire as a biotic shockwave tore apart the ground as it rushed towards them. Both of them moved out of the way before the attack hit them.

Yadrell grunted as he said "Seems their learning fast. Any ideas Jack?"

Jack smiled as she pulled out an M-920 Cain and said "Let's see how well it stands against a Nuke Gun!"

She fired the rocket as it hit the abomination dead on. The explosion went off as the husks around it were torn apart by the blast. Before the smoke could clear a beam tore through and struck Jack as she screamed as she fell down. A biotic barrier now covered the abomination as Yadrell gave into his hatred and fired a psychic blast at it as the attack tore through it along with the building behind it. Two more of the foul abominations started to come out from behind the buildings as the collectors started to cover the buildings around him.

The husks charged in first as Yadrell screamed "Burn!"

He let the power of the warp overtake him as the ground around him became coated in ice. The few flames left by the attacks suddenly flared as they carpeted the area where the husks stood reducing them to ask. The collectors fired as the imperial storm trooper armor withstood the attack as he retaliated with a barrage of psychic bolts tearing across the roof tops. He could feel the perils of warp coming through as the ground started to shake.

People began shouting, but he no longer cared as he let his hatred spiral out. The husks were simply minds, and while most of the collectors had some sort of willpower it was nothing against the boundless hatred the warp held. The husks began to tear each other apart while the collectors turned against each other shooting each other. He could feel his flesh starting to be torn apart as cuts started to cover his body despite nothing touching his armor.

The abominations rushed at him trying to stop his attacks as Yadrell reached into the warp again. Black flames poured out of his hand tearing them apart as if they were nothing as he could feel the veil between reality and the warp weakening as he fired a lightening blast at a few collectors he could see. He felt a rough blow against the back of his head as he before he fell unconscious he could hear gunfire from the human weapons behind him.

* * *

Ashley shouted "What the hell was that!"

Shepherd fired at the few remaining collectors left and said "No idea. At least it stopped now and the collectors have been driven back."

"Fuck." A voice came near Shepherd.

She turned to see Jack was alive and unharmed for the most part. Shepherd could spot the tell-tale signs of a biotic overexerting themselves as Jack was defiantly out of breath, but no wounds or damage from the attack itself. Garrus moved over defend her position as Mordin gave a quick on Yadrell's status.

"Interesting." Mordin said to himself "Individual isn't biotic as unknown section in brain is active."

"Is he alright?" Shepherd shouted as she threw a grenade at a group of husks.

Mordin quickly nodded as he said "Minor damage easily fixed by a shot of medi gel. More concerned about abnormalities caused by attacks. Should be safe for the time being."

The GARDIAN turret fired at the collector ship as the collectors fell back. Everyone began to cheer as they had managed to drive the collectors back. The collector ship left the city as they had received confirmation from Joker that it had left the planet.

Shepherd relaxed for a moment before Joker said "Holy shit! The other Cerberus vessel just came out and practically rammed the bloody thing!"

Shepherd shouted over the radio "Are they alright?"

Joker paused for a moment and then said "They actually doing just fine. You won't believe this, but they just disabled the collector ship. It's stuck dead in space for right now as we are receiving a request to get our stuff together and join them in boarding the enemy ship."

"Are they crazy!" Garrus shouted "That thing nearly overwhelmed us and now they want us to board the ship?"

EDI chipped in saying "They are giving us some time to recover as they finish venting the ship's life support."

"By blasting holes through the ship. Hell they didn't even suffer any damage ramming the Collector ship!" Joker added.

Shepherd looked down at Yadrell as she began to have concerns about Cerberus. The weapons they were using were too far advanced and the stunt they pulled with ramming the ship would have ended badly with any regular ship. Even then the powers Yadrell had used worried her as she made note to herself to check with Tai what the hell it was.

* * *

Star Child woke up again as the black mist had returned. It sat in a lawn chair in front of him munching on a bag of popcorn as it was resting it's feet of one of the keepers. Star Child hated the strange entity as it had invaded the heart of the citadel again!

The mist laughed as it said "Well so much for the battle. Not only did the humans stop the collectors from taking the colony, but they also disabled their ship and are preparing to board it!"

Star Child shouted "All that has to be done is to simply activate the self-destruct."

"Too late!" The mist laughed snapping it's fingers as another round of shots from the imperial ship tore through the collector ship "They never expected to be boarded and things are about to get a bit more chaotic."

Star Child shouted "What have you done?"

The mist stretched it's fingers (or what could be counted as fingers) as it said "Do you have any idea how _hard_ it is to find anyone close enough to a psyker in this galaxy? All I did was just find a spot where the veil was _just _weak mind you and simply gave a few suggestions. Honestly I would have been alright with a pirate fleet, but _this_ is more interesting."

Star Child tried to sense what was on being found on the collector ship's sensors. It took a while before it detected the planet's earthquakes. The planet should have been experiencing earthquakes as there seemed to be something wrong with the solar system itself.

"You didn't…" Star child replied

The Mist grinned as it replied "Though I would like to think I had a hand in it though, but the truth is that batarian did it all on his own. You can consider this my second knock. Now you can sit back and enjoy the show sense you literally can't do anything about it…" The mist held the bucket of popcorn near Star Child "Want some popcorn? It's going to get _interesting_ soon."

* * *

_Yes this chapter had Shepherd in it. Don't expect her to stay as she has other things to do. _


	12. Chapter 12

Warp effect ch12 _**Soaring Horizon**_

_Author note – I do not own 40k or Mass Effect. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Warhammer 40k Belongs to Game Workshop_

_New chapter up as this one has changed some of Mass Effect lore. This chapter may generate a bit of Flak or "Flame", but please remember that this is a story. Any comments, tips, ideas, or theories will be appreciated. Other than that this chapter will have the Imperial soldier Samual make a visit and help give a part of the Mass Effect lore that has changed. The Imperium has a lot of planets, but has not spread as far out in the universe as Mass Effect. Then again Mass Effect uses the Relays to get around leaving a lot of unexplored space in-between the two points._

* * *

Yadrell woke up in the medical room as he pulled aside the wires stuck on him as his head ached in pain. Some people would account going of the strain or limit with the warp like a bad hangover. That would be right to anyone who never had a hang over and said the same thing to a just sober alcoholic. Voices screamed in his mind as his senses screamed. He could hear every thought, feeling, action in the area. All of the pain from the soldiers lying in pain being treated for their wounds. He could feel the agony for those who lost friends or loved ones during the battle. Most of all he could feel dark secrets that lied in their minds that they would never admit or would show. He could feel the thirst for power to prevent another incident like it happening or the burning desire for revenge that wouldn't stop until they were all dead.

He looked over to the bed beside him as he could hear the thoughts of revenge strongly with him. He was just some Cerberus soldier who had lost his arm and was covered in bandages. He could feel the regret of losing his arm and the rage felt towards the collectors to get it. He could feel the self-loathing of him blaming himself for losing it. He could feel the desire to have it back not matter the price he would have to pay.

"I really hate this part." Yadrell muttered to himself as one of the doctors came over to him "Yes I am alright. I just over exerted myself that's all." As he added in the back of his mind "_and send an email about Ms Winters project looking for test subjects."_

He ignored what the doctor was saying not because he couldn't hear what he was saying due to the barrage of thoughts and senses he was feeling made it difficult. He could see his lips moving to give some reason or comfort, but he could hear the doubts and fear that rested in the doctor's mind. Then came the rage since Yadrell didn't listen to his authority and the fact the doctor didn't like Yadrell's "Inhuman" abilities or that's how the doctor labeled them. Thankful someone else was starting to have a problem which diverted the doctor's attention. Strangely enough it was out of concern for the patient that made the doctor leave than the power of holding one's life in their hands that made him leave. He made note of it as the assistant beside him preferred the power he got as he _"accidently"_ gave patients less medication than he was supposed do as he let them roll around in agony. He would have to deal with that latter.

Outside of the room wasn't much better as Yadrell could feel the array of emotions as he started to figure out where he was. Thankfully he was back on the imperial ship apparently brought after they had been forced to knock him out instead of shooting him in the head like most people would have done. He marched back to his room as he tried to get a look over what had happened while he was unconscious and figure out what he should do next.

* * *

Things were starting off badly as Shepherd's team had been selected to board the enemy collector ship. Most of their team came out unscathed somehow, while half of the fire teams without the countermeasure had been rendered unconscious or badly wounded. Thankfully Jack had survived, if a bit exhausted from the collector attack, while Ms. Winters was making sure they had finished recovering the imperial technology from the colony. Adam was preparing a team incase Shepherd's team needed help while Zixin was taking a damage assessment of the imperial technology and his LOKI bots. While the imperial flak armor did protect against the Collector beam weapons it didn't cover the entire body as the collectors started to aim at the sections that didn't have the imperial flak armor leaving a lot of wounded soldiers, but managed to prevent any of them from dying which was more than could be said about some of the colonist's defenders.

Yadrell sighed as he looked over the book of spells again. All of that power on his finger tips and yet he had just been reduced to a _"crazed psyker"_ for everyone to see. It was their ignorance about psykers that Yadrell had enjoyed the most about this new universe as he was treated like a normal person. Grant it a powerful person, but not that much different than a powerful biotic. It was just annoying that a normal human soldier managed to last longer than he did. Which was kind of strange now that he thought about it? How could she have done so well on her own? His _teams_ had weapons that tore through the enemy like tissue paper. She had a motley crew that would seem eccentric to even the Tau. He was using technology far more advanced than she could ever find. She had a lizard that had found a better counter measure than his team! Sure the Salarian had decent equipment, but the Salarian's countermeasure hadn't even been tested yet, but it still worked out just fine because Shepherd was there! It made no sense how things could work out for her in the end. Heck they could drop her in the middle geth invested planet and she would come out unscathed while talking about the interesting scenery.

Yadrell looked over the extranet once again as he tried to get an idea of the rest of the galaxy to try to get an idea. Maybe there was some underlining fact in the universe that made it possible that he hadn't caught onto yet. After all his universe just ran on the bases of Grimdarm and what else could make things _even_ _worse_. Of course it didn't help that each time he looked at it the extranet confused him even more. Democracy was the common form of government and despite its many flaws. The Imperium loved to use bloodlines and aristocrats to govern their planets… or soldiers who managed to rise through the ranks by killing enough of the imperium's enemies, but none of this elected official crap (or none that he knew of). The Tau divided their government by a caste system with Ethereals in charge. The elder had their own way while the orks… where properly the closest since their leader was the biggest and the strongest and even then that was a stretch. Yet even fraking race used democracy or some form of it apparently for their government.

The military factions here favored space combat over ground combat. (And while it may be true that his galaxy also liked space battles they also knew the importance of ground forces and defenses) Melee was considered a novelty at best unless you were a krogan (or Jack). Even then all of the alien races seemed to be friendly as it was considered "impolite" to be xenophobic and use orbital bombardments or bombing runs over heavily populated cities… actually the last two were not allowed due to the citadel's rules which strangely the other races followed. When the frak did wars have rules besides _kill the enemy and survive_… though that last part tended to be looked over to some people back home.

He took one last look at the collector ship as it was properly one of the most familiar and alien things to be found in this universe. They worked like the Nids as they tried to overwhelm the enemy with numbers and had some sort of hive mind or being guide their actions. He was sure they had the twisted nature of the dark elder or something similar to it the people captured by them were not living pleasant lives if they were still alive for that matter. They were more advanced than the rest of the races and for some reason they used a biologic based ship instead of the regular one made out of metal like the rest of the galaxy.

The planet experienced another earthquake again. A moment of dread fell as the silence suddenly came faster than he had expected. It could have been that he had finally recovered and that being in this abandoned section of the ship was the cause of the silence. Even then the warp was much calmer in this universe than the raging storm back home with the four gods of chaos lurking within it.

He quickly left the room as he headed to the bridge. Worst case scenario if he was wrong than he would make a foolish mistake that would just finish making this a miserable day for him. If he was right through… he would hopefully survive if they acted fast enough.

* * *

Pilot laughed as he said "I got you beat. I've got to learn not only how to fly a foreign space ship with instructions written in another language! Then to teach everyone else how to drive all of the vehicles, and possibly their air vehicles… or ships depending on who you ask, but that's only if they ever get finish with the fuel requirements and repairs. I tell you the last Time I heard adamantine being an actual material before I joined this crew was in those old comic books!"

Joker laughed as he responded back on the com "At least your ship doesn't talk back to you! She actually was tried to pester me and annoy me to as she put it "_improve my results_" or something."

EDI joined in on the conversation and said "Actually I was"

Both of them shouted "Shut it EDI!"

Yadrell sighed as he managed to reach the bridge. No one was really there except for Pilot since they wouldn't be in battle and it was a chance to test the connections in attempting to automate some of the systems instead of having people at the controls. Cerberus preferred having one person flying a ship instead of a team required to do it.

Joker continued "So why do they call you Pilot?"

Pilot laughed as he responded "Why do they call you Joker?"

Yadrell stepped next to Pilot and said "Do me a favor and check if there is anything near the sun."

"Got it." Pilot said as he started to plot a course.

Joker asked in confusion "So you're going to take a drive near the sun just because he asked."

Pilot shrugged as he replied "Not the weirdest thing I've had to do. I mean on the last…" He went silent for a moment as he checked the scans again "That can't be right."

Yadrell began to feel nerves. Everything was silent and the scanners were reading a bio organic object near the sun that wasn't moving. It was crazy to think it was possible since none of the Nid ships made it through… then again he thought the same thing about the Tau.

Warnings flashed over all of the systems as the people started rushing to the bridge as the automated systems couldn't keep up with the new input and command warnings left in the systems. Yadrell didn't need to read any of them as something had emerged on the other side of the planet.

Yadrell shouted "Get this ship back to the colony! Tell anyone left down there to have the colonist prepare to leave! Anyone left behind will die!"

Joker shouted "What the hell is that thing!"

Pilot looked at the vessel in fear as he said "It's a Tyranid bio ship… Shit."

* * *

The battle had been rough, but they had won. They enjoyed their hard fought peace as they celebrated their victory over the collectors as Shepherd was now taking the fight to them. They didn't notice the trouble until they received the warning. Another bio ship had arrived as everyone prepared for the worst thinking the collectors had sent a second ship. They had driven the first one off and defeated it just a few hours ago. Now they had a ship that could cripple the collector ships with ease. They didn't see any reason to panic or hide again.

Then some of the Cerberus soldiers from the other ship started to break out in cold sweats. They quickly started to dismantle their defenses and started commanding anyone who had a ship to prepare it for evacuation. The colony couldn't believe that Cerberus wanted to turn tail and run now just after they had managed to defend their colony against all odds. Then the unknown ship had reached the planet's orbit.

They stared in fear at the size of the Tyranid Bio-ship as scanners showed that it easily dwarfed Sovereign. The ship was battered, damaged, and wounded though the problem was that it was still alive. The first wave came forth from the ship as it carpeted the planet beneath it. Some smaller or remote outposts that still had the cameras running showed thousands of monsters tearing through the fields making the collector invasion seem like a minor problem. Even if every colonist on the planet had a laser gun they would still be hopelessly outnumbered as more monsters kept being launched at the planet. It didn't take long for some of the other small colonies reporting monsters falling from the sky as they tried to flee.

People started to panic as they rushed to the landing pads. Others started preparing their own ships even if they were glorified shuttles as they stuffed anything they had of value inside it. A few people claimed that they could win since they managed to defeat the collectors. That was until the spores started to cover the planet. The Collectors used the paralyzer swarm to disable their opponents. The Tyranids used the spores to weaken if not kill their opponents and with any protection as some people started to have severe reactions to the spores as they started to tear apart their lungs.

They waited to see if Shepherd would save them only to see the massive Cerberus vessel to land as it's doors opened ready to take the colony to safety as tanks started to leave the ships moving in to defend the landing site. Some started to go into the ship peacefully as others didn't trust Cerberus as they waited to see if Shepherd had some trick she had yet to use. Others started to charge prices for passage off the planet. All of that quickly ended when one of the monsters managed to reach the colony as it tore through the colonists who wanted to defend the colony with ease as they shields were worthless against it's claws. Then people started to panic as they flooded towards the Cerberus ship as all hell had started to break lose.

* * *

Adam shouted over the vox system "Report any contacts! If you see one of these fucking things then there is an entire pack behind them nearby! When in doubt shoot for the big ones!" One of the solders started to cough blood "Harker! Keep a mouth guard on or something! The spores tear apart you insides if you don't!"

Harker nodded as he said "Understood!"

Adam took a cloth out and wiped away some of the gunk from his visor. Something was wrong. The Tyranid spores hadn't fallen on Binthu, but none of the Tyranid ships had emerged to their side of the galaxy. Yet he knew that this many spores shouldn't be falling and acting so quickly.

Adam shouted "Zixin! Get some of your bots to take care of the wounded near the tents!"

Zixin shook his head as he responded "I am not here for wounded civilains. If any of these… Tyranids have died nearby then we need to collect their corpses for study."

Yadrell spoke on the vox channel for them all to hear "Just remember to leave the Lictor bodies alone. They attract the Nids and the last thing we need is the ship to get infested."

Adam was about to shout back in anger only for a Tyranid drop pod to smash through one of the buildings. He moved back into position as a group of the smaller creatures with guns came rushing out of the building. The Termagants aimed their weapons at them as Adam took cover ready for the barrage of those parasites they fired. Instead a barrage of spikes struck their position and tearing though some of the defenders. They were able to kill the Termagants with the las bolts killing them just as easily as they had to the collectors.

Adam shouted "When did they change ammo!"

"What is that thing?" Harker responded

A new Tyranid organism stood in the streets tearing apart some hapless colonist that had tried to kill it. This creature stood on four legs with a mouth like a ripper with a long jagged tail with blood coating the tip. It wasn't a listed strain in the imperial records like the others. They opened fire at it only for it suddenly dash to another location as if it had teleported. A few of the colonist left fired a couple of bullets at it only for the bullets to hit a kinetic barrier that covered it's flesh.

The creature lunged towards them as Zixin fired a las bolt into it's head before it reached them as it's body crashed into one of the fortifications. The las bolts shouldn't have worked so easily against it as there had been plenty of more advanced Tyranids that wouldn't have been stopped by a single las bolt. To make things worse more report of unknown Tyranids were coming displaying biotic abilities.

Adam shouted "I thought Nids didn't have biotics!"

Yadrell spoke as confusion entered his voice he said "They don't have biotics."

A group of Hormagaunts appeared down a few streets as they opened fire. The creatures rushed towards them ready to tear them apart. As a large Tyranid creature resembling a hanar created biotic barriers around them to protect them from the regular gun fire.

Adam shouted "Well they do now!" before he threw a grenade killing a group.

Zixin paused for a moment and said "Does color have any significance of rank or status?"

"No!" Yadrell and Adam shouted together.

Zixin continued "The humanoid with four arms variants are mostly with white and with bits of purple while the biotic variants are blue with bits of gray in them."

Yadrell sighed as he replied "Gene Stealer. Get anyone on board checked over. Last thing we need is an indoctrinated guest."

Winters shouted over the vox "They have the same capabilities as the reapers!"

Yadrell shook his head "Worse. I read about the reaper version. You just get filled with machines or something, but it ends with you. The Nid version gets much worse. Essentially they can infest entire planets and spawn new Gene Stealers or hybrids. Very nasty as a couple get psycho powers, but they all get a connection to their hive mind until it grows big enough to start to signal one of the Nid ships to start feasting on the planet."

Jack looked at the other ships and said "What about the other ships trying to flee?"

Yadrell bit his lip and said "If we were not grounded I would have ordered us to open fire on any that tries to escape. Sadly I don't think Shepherd's ship will do that."

Adam couldn't believe that he was talking about the massacre of innocents civilians so easily until he remembered the Exterminates solution that the Imperium had used.

Yadrell glared back at Adam and replied "Two colors mean two factions and I only see one ship above us. That means some of the batch from Binthu managed to survive just long enough to indoctrinate a ship or two with a few gene stealers. How else could they have gotten the biotic abilities so quickly?"

Adam gritted his teeth as he as kept shooting at the monsters in front of him as he began to wonder how a Tyranid Bio ship managed to get past Cerberus's attention so easily. A small part of him began to wonder if they would even be able to stop it. They were having a hard enough time with the scouts while the Tyranid main army was currently devouring the other side of the planet. They were hopelessly out gunned this time.

* * *

Joker shouted over the radio "Please tell me you're almost out of there!"

Shepherd shouted "The Collectors are still putting up a resistance. What just happened outside?"

EDI spoke "Unknown race as just started attacking Horizon. The other Cerberus ship has started evacuating the colony themselves. Currently they hold most of the current population aboard their ship."

"What about the rest of the planet?" Shepherd shouted before a grenade went off.

In the back ground they could hear "We have defeated the Terkrith before. They shall not stop us this time!"

Joker looked one look at the scans of the planet and said "Either they managed to find some way off the planet or… they're dead. The other side of the planet is practically covered in them and it's getting worse."

EDI paused for a moment before saying "Terkrith… ancient race believed to exist during the time of the Prometheans. One of the mythologies of the Hanar culture labels them as the _infected _or _fallen_ as they had fallen victim to _The Devourers_. A group of demons that came in a variety of shapes and forms that sought to end all life. They were considered to be the exact opposite of _The Enkindlers_. "

Joker shouted "These things are demons!"

EDI's image flashed for a moment before continuing "Little information about them exists besides in other culture myths, but the Hanar are the closest ones. Still most of the myths had been disproven by each race's governments and Cerberus ignored them since they showed no relation with the Reapers or Sovereign."

Garrus shouted "Well we fought a reaper so demons isn't that far off. Does it have anything else EDI?"

EDI continued "Only information left suggestions species had psychic powers or mental powers not derived from biotic ability. Mind control included."

Joker quickly added "This thing is bigger than Sovereign! Unless we have a fleet on standby we need to leave **now** Shepherd!"

Tai shouted "Your galaxy has another ancient enemy that wishes to destroy you all?"

EDI shimmered for a moment before saying "New information added. New species has just been identified as Tyranid."

Tai muttered "By the Ethereals. We are in grave danger."

"You know what they are?" Shepherd shouted as a grenade went off."

Tai spoke in sorrow as he said "Just know that this will _only_ be the beginning."

* * *

Winters tossed the last of her grenades as the tyranid swarm continued to grow. The landing platform was closing as the ship was preparing to leave. They continued to fire at any of the flying creatures that came close as one or two of them managed to make it inside before they were gunned down. Only when the doors finally shut as the ship took off did they leave the boarding area.

They could hear Yadrell shouting into the vox system "Have any remaining soldiers deemed safe to check the rest of the ship. Make sure that none of the Nids managed to sneak aboard! Everyone else gets scanned or shot if they refuse."

Adam raced towards the bridge as Winters and Zixin followed him as they were asking what was going on or what he knew about the Tyranids. He ignored them as they could hear Yadrell over the vox system wanting to make sure they got away safely.

Only when they reached the bridge did they finally manage to get safely away from the planet as the Tyranid ship just stayed station as the opposite side of the planet apparently content with having taken the planet. The only reason why the Tyranid ship didn't bother to chase them was properly because it needed the biomass to fix itself and there wasn't another ship nearby to send after them.

Yadrell looked over the controls and said "How many ships have escaped through the relay?"

Pilot shrugged as he said "Maybe half a dozen? We are still getting a few requests to from some of the ships that managed to get up into space, but unable to use the mass relay. Mostly they want a ride out of here."

Winters looked back at the scanners and said "And I thought Sovereign was big. I wouldn't want to be in the same system as that thing."

Yadrell nodded as he said "The Imperium has a hard enough time taking them out with _their_ ships and trust me when I saw the Imperium ships are bigger than this thing. Zixin…"

Zixin took a deep breath and said "I made sure that any dead corpses I brought aboard were shot in the head for good measure… unless they keep their brain somewhere else? I also made sure not to take any lictor corpses. The original autopsies will have to do for now."

"Good." Yadrell responded "What about Shepherd's team?"

Pilot checked the controls and said "Good news is that they managed to recover what we needed. Bad news is that we properly can't retrieve the collector ship anymore."

Yadrell shrugged as he simply said "Then blast it back to the warp. Leave nothing of use for the Nids to devour. Anything that has biomass is simply food for them."

Jack looked back at the planet and said "And what about the planet?"

Pilot interrupted her and said "A couple of ships just appeared out of the Mass Relay. They are calling themselves the SDF."

Yadrell was taken for a moment. The last time he head that was around an imperial planet. This universe didn't bother to designate groups or planetary defenses as PDF or SDF as far as he knew.

The pilot paused for a moment before saying "They are sending an Imperial frequency to us. You won't believe this but they are asking if we need help."

Winters quickly interjected "Can you talk to them?"

"Opening link now." He replied.

A voice came through saying "My name is Cristin Samual of 3rd imperial regiment and part of the Inquisitor's team."

Yadrell slowly said to himself "An Imperial here?"

Samual raised his voice in joy as he said "Who is that? I recognize your voice from somewhere."

Yadrell closed his eyes as he slowly said "What had happened? I thought the order had been given."

Samual went silent for a moment before he replied "You were the one who sent the Inquisitor's last message… I am sorry to inform you that the order had been received, but we were not able to act fast enough. The entire planet fell into the warp as it is due to arrive in this new universe before their so called _Reapers_ invade."

Yadrell spoke in disbelief as he began to feel a fear gripping his stomach and said "You can't be serious. Maybe you and the Tau also fell through, but the entire planet?"

Samual spoke with rage in his voice as he said "A Tau! I request visual on the Tau to confirm if it is the foul xenos that shot me in the back and doomed the planet along with the fleet into the warp!"

Winters quickly interjected as she said "We do not have a Tau aboard this ship. I must warn you that a Tyranid ship as entered this system and what do you mean by _before the Reapers invade_?"

"I know." Samual replied "We came here to grant the Emperor's Mercy. We had managed to recover one of the bombs used for Exterminates at great cost. The crew of the _Shining Valiant_ has accepted the task of deploying the weapon to cleanse the planet before the Hive ship can replenish biomass it has lot."

The scanners showed one of the smaller ships rushing towards the planet. Everyone looked at it in confusion wondering how it would be able to destroy a planet. Yadrell closed his eyes as he understood.

Samual continued "I apologize for letting this universe's Tyranid ship escape."

"This universe!" Adam shouted in disbelief "That can't be possible! Your galaxy has the Tyranids."

Samual went silent for a few moments before he said "I had been preparing for the Imperium's return as the Emperor himself had given me this task after healing me of my wounds. We managed to track down a Batarian pirate going by the name of Cetok looking from proof of his mad ravings. He managed to reawaken the hive ship only to have it break free of the planet with the help of a couple of blue sun mercs under control of a group of Tyranids from our universe."

Yadrell slowly muttered "There has been confirmation that the Nids are older than humanity itself. That they might have been to our galaxy before…"

Adam looked at Yadrell and said "I saw the Nids from your universe tearing everything apart. I saw how your ships are more advanced than anything we have. Heck a fleet struggled against Sovereign but I doubt we would be able to win against an Imperial battleship. How could the Reapers have beaten them?"

Horizon suddenly went up in flames as the entire planet was engulfed in fire as it destroyed everything. They looked in horror as the _Shining Valiant_ had sacrificed itself by putting itself in the planet's atmosphere before activating the bomb. The Tyranid ship started to back away from the planet since there wasn't anything left to be gained by it.

Yadrell slowly replied "They starved them to death. Kept shooting them as they made sure the Nids couldn't replenish their biomass. You may have been able to map out an impressive amount of the galaxy, but you are still missing a couple of large areas when you compare it to the maps held by the Imperium. Those areas might have been cleansed to prevent the Nids from replenish their strength."

Adam looked at the blazing planet in fear. This was how the Imperium fought against the Tyranids when they couldn't win in a straight out fight. This is how the Reapers had managed to beat such a deadly foe. They used scorched earth tactics on entire planets. This was what their galaxy was going to have to do if they couldn't stop the Tyranid hive ship quickly.

Samual spoke a prayer for the crew "May the Emperor grant them mercy at the golden throne… I am sorry to ask of this, but I must request your presence at the Citadel. You have to explain why we just destroyed a planet and the threat the Tyranids now pose on this galaxy. I doubt they would listen to me after what I just did."

Yadrell sighed as he said "Inform Shepherd she better get her speech ready. We have to let the Citadel know of two dangerous races that threaten to destroy the galaxy. At least we have proof this time."

* * *

Everyone had started to prepare as they had heard the news. Horizon was in flames as they managed to escape being devoured by the Tyranid horde. They were going to spend some time to ensure none of the Tyranids managed to infiltrate the ship and to ensure no one was infected. The ones who were marked with the taint of infection were escorted away from everyone else before they were killed. Those who refused to go through the test had also been killed.

Those who had been marked clear were sent to some of the spare rooms they were setting up for the refuges. They had been given food and supplies as they started taking turns on who would be able to call their relatives since they couldn't keep track of all the communication or com traffic.

Shepherd's crew prepared for their trip back to the citadel as they had been given most of the information about the Tyranids that they had. All of them prepared in their own way for their trip to the citadel and the loss they faced at Horizon. Yadrell's team also dealt with their own problems, but in their own ways.

Grunt practiced with his new sword resulting in a couple of damaged items as EDI made note of his growing aggression. Jacob and Zaeed had tried their hand in Melee only to lose against the training VIs making them switch back to ranged combat as they tried to prepare themselves. They had seen Cerberus's new weapons in action and the deadly force of the Tyranids from the recordings. The face of the battlefield was preparing to change and they were trying to get ready for it.

Tali started to get used to her new quarters aboard the Normandy as she studied the new ship. Mordin on the other hand was trying to figure out which he would study first. The information they had collected on the Collectors was fascinating as he could see the changes that had been made to the Prometheans to turn them into Collectors. Then there was the information being sent on the Tyranids and their advanced ability of genetic manipulation which was even greater than the Reapers. He already was sending in a request to see if one of the dead Tyranid specimens could be sent over to the Normandy.

Shepherd after she finished her report to the Elusive man and to the Citadel had prepared for her chat with Tai the wayward Tau. He had been troubled by the news about Samual still being alive and wanting to kill him. He was also one of the few individuals who knew about the new threat their galaxy now faced. So they started their unofficial debrief in the bar as the two of them tried to make sense of things.

Miranda on the other hand filed reports as she tried to ignore the large Imperial ship. Part of her didn't believe the Tau's story about coming from an alternate universe, but seeing the Imperial technology and the Tyranids in action made it hard to ignore. What bothered her the most was that _she_ didn't know about the Imperial ship either. The Illusive Man properly had his reasons but she couldn't help but feel worried that Jack a person who had a grudge against Cerberus had found out about it before she did. That Jack had been picked to join the crew while she had been picked to join Shepherd's suicide mission. Did that mean that The Illusive Man had faith in Shepherd being able to unite the races against the Reapers or that he simply didn't trust her enough to join the Imperial ship?

In the end they had managed to file away Horizon as a loss. It became another reason why they needed to stop the Collectors, Reapers, and now the Tyranids that had been just added to the list. Yadrell's team on the other hand knew that the loss of Horizon was just the start. Shepherd's team may have been able to convince themselves that Horizon would be one of the last planets to fall, but they knew better. The Imperial records showed how deadly the Tyranids were and a sneak peek into the war they would have to fight against the Reapers. Each of Yadrell's teammates dealt with it in a different way.

* * *

Adam leaned his back against the wall in the training room as he held a bottle of whisky in his hand. Everything had gone to hell and it was that dam Batarian's fault. The destruction of the entire planet was because the Batarian interfered. The death of Faith and Charles was linked to that dam Batarian. They fought against the collectors and they managed to send them backing and save an entire colony that was supposed to have been abducted by the collectors. They had changed the future as everything thing was alright only for that fucking Batarian to screw things up and unleash a Tyranid ship upon the galaxy! Hell it wouldn't surprise him if the fucking Batarians just opened a relay to the Reapers and shouted "come and kill the galaxy!" really loud for them all to hear.

Adam hurled the bottle against one of the training dummies as tears ran down his eyes. What good was all of this technology if they couldn't stop the enemy? What good was all of these defenses if they could save any lives? What good was any of this?

A voice whispered in his ear saying "They worked just fine. It's just the Batarian that screwed everything up. The same thing happened to Terra Nova as some crazed Batarian tried to crash an asteroid into it."

Adam rubbed his head as he tried to think straight. Hearing voices tended to be one of the first signs of insanity or that something was wrong. Then again that wasn't his first bottle of booze he had drank as he couldn't stand up anymore.

The voice continued "All of those weapons and defenses were useless against them. Was it because they were worthless? **NO! **It was because the Batarians did something completely insane like stealing an asteroid and try ramming it into a planet."

Adam nodded as he replied "They couldn't beat us in a fair fight. So they did something completely bat shit insane instead."

Adam began to think about all of the batarian attacks on human colonies. All of the illegal assaults and tactics that they did as the Citadel had banned the rest of the civilized races from doing. It seemed like anytime the Batarians did something the Citadel had to write down a new law to make sure no other race would ever do it again!

Adam shouted in anger "They are a fucking blight on this galaxy!"

The voice drew closer as it whispered "Yadrell is keeping secrets from all of you. He thinks you won't be able to handle the truth Adam."

Adam shook his head as he replied "He's told me everything he knows."

The voice chuckled as it said "Even about what was necessary to stop the Nids? How the ship would have been able to fix itself and replenish it resources if they didn't burn the entire planet to ashes?"

Adam shouted "It's what was needed to be done!"

The voice laughed as it shouted back "Then what needs to be done!"

Adam gripped the las pitol as he said to himself "I need to kill Cetok."

"And then?" The voice asked

Adam grinned as he said "Then set their entire system on fire! Slaughter them all no matter the cost."

Adam got up as he stumbled forward, but now he felt that he had a goal. He had to prepare for war and Yadrell's universe were experts on that subject. No method would be too extreme if it meant the extermination of the Batarian race.

Once Adam left the room the voice spoke with sadistic pleasure "Just as Planned."

* * *

Jack shouted in frustration as she punched the walls. She had been useless on the battlefield. Worse than useless she had been a liability! The strongest Biotic in the entire fucking universe reduced to a worthless princess that needed saving!

She gripped her hands tightly as she looked as the Storm trooper armor. The armor would have protected her against the attack. It was able to take bullets, lasers, and even a rocket launcher blast and she screwed it up by knocking herself out! Heck it wasn't even damaged despite the fact she was at ground zero when all those fuckers came swarming down on them.

Then Yadrell's little speech played back in her mind _"Stop holding back."_

Holding back? Holding back what! Did he see her as some scared little girl or something? Someone who was too afraid of their own power to even fight back? Who suddenly died and made him the expert on her life! She had escaped Cerberus as a fucking child by her _fucking_ self!"

Then to make things even fucking better Shepherd went with her _own_ team to the collector ship after _they_ shot it down. Did she ask anyone of them to join? Of course not because she thinks of herself as the fucking hero of the story too _good_ to think otherwise! Did anyone bother waking her up when the space monsters attacked? No they didn't! Instead they just left her in the infirmary while they shot intergalactic space bugs from another fucking universe!

Yadrell's little speech played again in the back of her mind _"Stop holding back."_

She shouted "What the fuck does that even mean!"

Suddenly a small part of her mind whispered back "_You fucking already know pussy!"_

Jack banged her head against the wall as she banished the thought. It was too painful to think about…

"Dam it." She thought to herself "He was fucking right."

* * *

Zixin looked at the Tyranid corpses and said "Impossible… They strands are too different."

The white Tyranid warrior was much more muscular than it's thin blue cousin. The weapons were similar, but the application and method of use were completely different. The acid cannon on the blue one used biotic manipulation to enhance it's power, while the white one simply produced a stronger blast with a more powerful riffle. The strains of DNA were similar, but there were major deviations where they could almost be counted as separate races.

Zixin snapped his finger shouting "Ezoe comparison between the two?"

One of the LOKI bots responded in confusion "Blue tests positive, but the white tests negative even after infusion tests. The creature seems to reject them all."

Zixin scratched his head as he looked over the imperial records. The White strain was foreign meaning it came from the Imperial version of the galaxy where the nid ships had started invading in full force. Right now their galaxy properly didn't have much to interest them due to the cycle of cleansing that the Reapers caused. Still one of those ships could cause massive harm to their galaxy even if they weren't the Imperial variant.

Zixin spoke to himself "The ship is trying to determine the difference in advantage between the two variants. The ork addition of the DNA makes them much stronger and sturdier, but at the cost of not being able to use biotic abilities…" Zixin remembered the effects that Red Sand had on certain races "For now at least." He quickly added.

The LOKI bot chipped in "The enemy may have changed tactics due to current environment. With weaker enemies it may switch to a weaker horde to save energy."

Zixin sighed as he replied "Not being able to get hurt is a decent ability. The only good news is that we may stop it if it just _stays_ at one ship… So Sparks. What was your opinion of Shepherd and Yadrell.?"

The LOKI bot paused for a moment before replying "Different. Shepherd hopes for the best and is an optimist with unique abilities. There is just some sort of spark or light that draws people to her as she seems to be able to defy odds. Yadrell is secretive and expects or prepares for the worst. He also has unique abilities, but his odds about the same as a powerful biotic with advanced equipment."

Zixin chuckled as he said "And which one would you pick?"

The LOKI bot quirked it's head and replied "Shepherd. If anyone is to unite the races to stop the Reapers it would be her and besides. Everything works out in the end for her. Yadrell is just too different from set models to give an estimate."

Zixin nodded as he pulled out a few organs from a gaunt saying "A bit messier than I expected… Oh well. I would pick Yadrell simply because he is different. Shepherd _may_ be able to unite the races, but they have a hard enough time believing the collectors are a threat than the fact that a Reaper ship just attacked them _two _years ago. My bet is that she will only be able to unite them _after_ the reapers start tearing apart the entire galaxy. Yadrell won't be able to recruit as many, but the point is we _will_ have them _before_ shit hits the fan. "

The LOKI bot shook it's head replying "That doesn't make sense. That still leaves a shortage for when the reapers do arrive. "

Zixin smiled as he replied "Look at the difference between me and Okear. Yadrell went to get my knowledge and Shepherd went to get his information of the Collectors. All Okear knowledge had been stuffed in his prototype and the information he needed was already in my computers."

The LOKI bot countered "Yadrell needed you alive to use your knowledge."

Zixin shrugged as he simply stated "And the same could be said for Shepherd. Point is she got what she needed, but Okear kicked the bucket. Yadrell got what he needed and I have a shot at a retirement if we survive this. Yadrell is what we need if we humanity to come out strong instead of just surviving this coming war. He also still has a few secrets he hasn't told us yet."

* * *

Ms Winters tried to keep track of all the information being sent out. She didn't like how much was getting out, but it had to be done. An empty planet with a secret Cerberus outpost disappearing overnight could be ignored. A planet full of human colonist just told that collectors were about to attack while Shepherd was on the planet before it suddenly burst into flames. That would properly attract more attention than a second geth attack on the citadel.

She looked over a few of the emails. Most of them were trying to get arrangements to have friends or family ready to pick them up or be prepared for them once they arrived on the citadel. Some of them were trying to sell their story to some news channel or score a few credits in case it got turned into a movie. The rest were in full panic as they were either talking about Cerberus's new laser technology or the Tyranid invasion that made the Collectors assault look like a bad breeze from how they wrote about it.

She quickly started to filter the reports as she deleted the ones talking about the laser weapons before she sent them off the ship and started on the next batch. It wasn't uncommon for the surge of messages to accidently stop a few of them. There even had been a few that were supposed to have gone through only to get canceled due to the mass of messages being sent.

She closed her eyes and slowly said to herself "Shit… I need to send one to my family. Tell them to move back closer to Earth or something."

Winters sighed as she tried to figure out what she should do or what she should exactly say to them. This was just the first threat before the reapers. If they couldn't take out a damaged hive ship then they certainly wouldn't stand a chance against the reapers.

She laughed to herself as she said "I doubt this ship could even harm it despite it being the most advanced ship we have. If they can really get as old as the Imperial records say then those wounds might have been caused by the reapers themselves. How can we kill something that they failed to kill?"

Her eyes came upon one of the imperial data slates she had somehow missed. It talked about the mission that had the space marines managing to cripple one of the tendrils of the Hive Fleet Leviathan. They had managed to get inside the ship and inject the Norn-Queen with some deadly biological plague that disrupted their hive mind. It was a crazy and suicidal plan… but they were sending Shepherd into the heart of the collectors and it sounded a lot more possible than shooting it down with their ships. At the very least it was a plan she could work with for now until a better one came up. She looked over how many a creatures a hive ship could store. She just hoped a better plan would come quickly.

* * *

Yadrell looked over the reports as he prepared for his report to the Illusive Man. Shepherd's report was technically more important than his. She had hopefully got what they were looking for as they would be a step closer towards defeating the collectors. All he had had to explain how to fight killer aliens from another galaxy since this batch hadn't come from his universe which in some ways was even more frightening. It meant there was a hive fleet in this universe that may have just to start to notice this galaxy.

He thought back to that deal he had made with the daemon. A universe without any of the aliens he hated. The rest of them were not here, but apparently the Nids didn't count since they were technically in a _different_ galaxy at this moment. Heck this one shouldn't have even woken up until somebody did something extremely stupid.

The room began to darken as The Illusive Man appeared. He was just putting out whatever he was smoking as he wasn't exactly happy about the news he had received. Yadrell didn't need his powers to know that the Illusive Man had seen how dangerous the Tyranids would become if they didn't get rid of them quickly.

The Illusive Man spoke in irritation as he said "Just when we start being able to deal with one bug problem another one pops up. What is your assessment of this new group of Tyranids."

Yadrell shrugged as he replied "Honestly I thought you would be asking if they came from my universe."

The Illusive Man nodded as he said "That would have made things much easier. The Batarian named Cetok had started flooding the extranet with images and videos of him uncovering the dam thing including waking it up. I'm not foolish enough to just believe that there is only _one_ of those ships lurking in our galaxy lying in dormant."

"Well we do have some time to prepare." Yadrell calmly said "While Horizon may have been torched to ashes there are a few other planets nearby. The Nids will either start to feast on them or try to escape to make sure it doesn't get attacked by some random fleet. Their FTL method is much slower than warp travel and that is slower than your Relay travel. The only problem is that this will allow them to pop up where ever they want."

The Illusive Man pulled out a cigar and said "Can they use the Relay Network?"

Yadrell shrugged as he replied "Honestly I didn't expect to see biotic Nids so it may be possible. All I know is that it will take them time giving us a few months or at a few weeks before they approach citadel space though it wouldn't surprise me if another planet gets attacked soon."

The Illusive man took a few puffs as he contemplated what he was going to say. Yadrell couldn't blame him as he knew it was a difficult decision. They already had to dump the refugees from Horizon at the citadel as they were to accompany Shepherd to let the counsel know the collectors were real and the evidence they had. Any attempts at hiding their advanced technology were gone now as Shepherd properly had a report of the incident and already given it to the Citadel. It was more than likely that they would still dismiss it, but the Tyranids would be a lot harder to ignore. Then again they had been able to ignore the Reapers so well so far that if another one suddenly appeared and started attacking planets they properly wouldn't even notice it. This sadly made them just as effective as Imperial bureaucracy which was the only thing that this universe managed to share with his own.

The Illusive man spoke "Shepherd still needs to go to the Citadel and even if you didn't have those refuges you would have to go with her. We _need_ to let the rest of the galaxy know that they need to prepare. Last thing I need to do is to deal with a fleet of Tyranid ships after the Reapers are dealt with."

Yadrell smiled as he said "And what exactly are you planning."

The Illusive man continued "I am sending you some new dossiers on some potential recruits. Shepherd's team will still go after the Collectors. Your team will try to figure out how to deal with the Tyranids instead."

Yadrell nodded as he looked over the new crew roster. This one was different than the first ones he had received. The first ones only talked about a single person. These talked about organizations, merc groups, and even former Alliance soldiers who had just left the military. Shepherds had been new team members for her suicide mission. Yadrell's was a recruitment list for an army.

He composed himself as he tried to hide his excitement and said "I take it Shepherd's talk didn't go to well."

The Illusive Man nodded as he said "Let's just say I preferred where you placed your loyalties. You haven't left Cerberus after finding out that another Imperial has made it over here."

Yadrell replied "And Shepherd is planning to leave Cerberus after her mission. At least I'm a safe investment."

The Illusive Man simply replied "I just hope you can get those idiots on the council to see the danger."

The image went out as the room started to brighten up again. Yadrell started to look up what he could about the council members to get an idea on what he should expect.


End file.
